Married RE teacher Madeleine Martin jailed for having sex with 15-year-old schoolboy

By Liz Hull
Last updated at 5:52 PM on 25th November 2009


Madeleine Martin: Seduced the boy she was meant to mentor on Facebook

The career of a married religious education teacher was in tatters today after she was jailed for having sex with a 15-year-old grammar school pupil.

Madeleine Martin, 39, seduced the boy via the social networking site Facebook after being appointed to mentor him at school.

They exchanged a series of emails and had sex three times in the back of her car at a country park, a shopping centre and at her home during their brief relationship.

Martin, a mother-of-two, even persuaded the teenager to have her name tattooed in a heart on his arm to remind him of her when they were apart.

She, in return, had a tattoo for him of some Hebrew script on her lower back.

But after just nine days the pair decided to end their relationship.

The boy, who had been having difficulty at school at the time, confided in his brothers about the affair, who in turn told their mother and she contacted police.

Today Martin, of Knutsford, Cheshire, was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to ten charges of sexual activity with a child under 16.

Her victim cannot be named for legal reasons.

Judge Jonathan Geake told her: ‘Rather than mentor him in the proper way, you used him as an emotional support and comfort for yourself.

‘You started to abuse the trust you were entrusted with. Eventually you lured him into intimacies which should never have happened. You are to blame, not him. Those of either sex in a position of trust must expect significant punishment when they abuse that trust - especially sexually.’

Manchester Crown Court heard that Martin fell for the boy when she was asked to be his mentor at the school in Greater Manchester where she worked.

It cannot be named to protect the boy’s identity.

Jennifer Birch, prosecuting, told the court that Martin started giving the boy gifts, including a mobile phone, and sending him messages on Facebook.

One of Martin’s messages read: ‘sorry, I cannot add [as a friend on the website] you until you leave school.’
Madeleine Martin with members of her family arrives at Manchester Minshull St Court today for sentencing

Madeleine Martin with members of her family arrives at Manchester Minshull St Court today for sentencing

‘The exchanges show that she knew that even indirect contact between them out of school was inappropriate,’ Miss Birch said.

Martin also tried to get the boy into her tutor form and wrote: ‘Don’t worry, I always got your back’ after she lied on his behalf when he missed a detention.

By January this year they were sending each other up to ten messages per day and the following month their relationship became more intimate.

The court heard that on February 9 Martin drove the boy to a tattoo parlour where she persuaded and paid for him to have a heart, with the name “Mad” inside it, tattooed on his body.
Martin, 39, was sentenced to 32 months in prison today

Martin, 39, was sentenced to 32 months in prison today

She then drove to a nearby retail park where they had full sex in the car and Martin performed a sex act on the boy, before they were spotted and asked to leave by a security guard.

The following day Martin drove to Daisy Nook country park where she and the boy, whose mother was abroad at the time caring for her terminally ill father, again engaged in sexual activity.

Two days later they had sex again at the empty home of the boy’s uncle.

Martin then changed her identity on Facebook to hide their growing relationship and invited the boy to her own home where they again had sex while her two teenage daughters, aged 14 and 17, were out.

Martin, who qualified as a teacher in 2005, refused to comment about her sexual relations with the boy when questioned by detectives.

In a victim impact statement, the boy’s mother, a 49-year-old businesswoman, said her son had been taunted by other children and was no longer in full-time education.

Her ‘once vivacious’ child had become lethargic and had “lost his sparkle”, the mother added.

Mark Fireman, defending, said Martin had acted ‘wholly and utterly out of character’ and had been going through a series of personal difficulties at the time of the affair.

Her marriage was breaking up and her sister had been diagnosed with terminal cancer from which she has since died.

He said: ‘These events left her depressed and vulnerable to thoughts and actions which should never have taken place. She has lost just about everything - her good name and her promising career. She has brought shame upon herself and upon her family.

‘She accepts that it is all of her own doing and that she is to blame - not the boy.

‘She bitterly, bitterly regrets what she has done.

‘She never intended to have a sexual relationship - it was something which grew over time. She is not predatory - it is something she fell into rather than something she sought.’

Martin was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.



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