October 2015 Married teaching assistant jailed for having sex with pupil A married teaching assistant has been jailed for having sex with a 16-year-old pupil whom he called his ‘gorgeous wifey-woo’. Gareth Clements claimed he fell in love with the girl because she was the only one who could understand him after his mother’s death.  Even after police became involved, the obsessed 41-year-old continued to pursue the girl and begged her not to leave him, the court was told. The assistant, who met the girl while working at Saltash Community School, Cornwall, also wrote letters to the teenager, calling her his ‘gorgeous wifey-woo’. The love notes included references to having sex, with her asking: ‘Does she know that we made love?’ The assistant has now been jailed for one year, after admitting sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust. Despite his reputation being ‘destroyed’, the court heard how his forgiving wife is standing by him and that he had even managed to secure himself a new job. During the hearing at Truro Crown Court, prosecutor Joanna Martin told how Clements and the girl initially became close when she was aged under 16. She said: ‘He started to feel that the only person who understood him was her. He explained he was attracted to her and on her 16th birthday gave her a necklace and a silver pin.’ But the relationship soon developed into a sexual one, the court was told. The school quickly became aware of the situation and the girl was spoken to by police, but she did not initially make a complaint.  Ms Martin added that, despite police speaking to Clements about the concerns, he still tried to contact the girl and was once found hiding behind a parked car at her address. The prosecutor said: ‘She was clearly very torn between her loyalty at that stage to this defendant and wanting to assist the police.’ The court heard how, in the later letters found by police, the girl appeared to want to end the illicit romance. But Clements had ‘tried hard’ to persuade her to continue with the affair. The girl eventually gave a statement to police due to Clements’ continuing obsessive behaviour, fearing she was on unsafe, the court heard. Defending, Chris Andrews, said the relationship had clearly been wrong and that his professional reputation had been destroyed but that he now had a new job.  He said Clements was ‘remarkably lucky’ to have the love and support of his wife who had stood by him. Mr Andrews said Clements had been struggling with anxiety and depression at the time of the offence. As well as being jailed, the defendant was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely and ordered to sign the sex offenders register. After the case Saltash School confirmed in a statement that Clements had been a teaching assistant there. A spokesman said: ‘As soon as the school was alerted to concerns relating to events that had taken place out of school, appropriate action was immediately taken, involving the school’s safeguarding policies and procedures. ‘We can also confirm that Mr Clements is no longer an employee at the school.’