November 2010 Teacher’s career over after he admits sexual grooming of 14-year-old schoolgirl A MATHS teacher who made a 300-mile round trip to see a 14-year-old schoolgirl he met on the internet has been banned for life from working with children. The career of 27-year-old Robert Simpson was left in tatters after he admitted two charges of meeting the 14-year-old following sexual grooming. Simpson, of Glamis Close,Garforth,Leeds originally denied both charges, but changed his pleas to guilty after a trial at Lincoln Crown Court earlier this year. The jury heard how Simpson had just been appointed to his first post at the all-girl Gleed High School in Spalding when he contacted the girl via the “Dear Cupid” forum. Gordon Aspden, mitigating, told Lincoln Crown Court Simpson had paid a heavy price for his conduct. Mr Aspden said: “He is no longer a school teacher or can be a school teacher ever again. “He is now working in a completely different field and still has the full support of his family. “He put this down as an aberration in his life. “It is something he does not want to repeat in the future.” Simpson agreed to the terms of a five-year sexual offences prevention order which bans him from seeking to contact any girl under-16 via the internet or owning a mobile phone in anybody else’s name. The order also forbids Simpson from owning more than one mobile phone sim card at a time. Simpson was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years and was placed under probation supervision for three years. He was also ordered to pay £200 costs and told to complete a sexual offences treatment programme. Passing sentence, Judge Michael Heath told Simpson: “You were a rather stupid young man who was socially isolated at the time. “What you did constituted a very serious error of judgement for which you have paid a heavy price because you are qualified as a teacher and now that profession is no longer available to you.”