Former PE teacher who used a social networking site to offer a 15-year-old pupil £200 for sex.

Former PE Teacher Jailed for Sexually Exploiting Pupils

Andrew Delafield, 28, from Newton Abbot, Devon, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for attempting to engage in sexual activity with two 15-year-old girls.

Delafield, who previously worked as a PE teacher at a community college, used the social networking site Bebo to contact the teenagers under the username "Lanky Monkey". He offered one of the girls £200 for sex and asked both girls to send him indecent images.

The court heard that Delafield had been convicted of making indecent images of a child in the past. He was eventually caught when a friend of one of the girls, posing as the girl online, persuaded Delafield to send a facial image of himself.

Delafield was found guilty of two offences of attempting to make indecent images of a child and 11 of making indecent images of a child. Judge Jeremy Griggs stated that the fact Delafield knew the girls personally made the case "out of the normal run of internet cases".

The prosecution revealed that Delafield had 271 still and moving images of child abuse on his computer.

Delafield's defense argued that he believed the girls were 16 years old and that his actions were "reckless stupidity".