A predatory PE teacher has been jailed after she followed her pupil to university to continue sexually abusing her there.

Carly Dear, 46, tormented her victim for five years while the child attended Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, in Kent.

Despite Dear protesting her innocence and remaining ‘remorseless’, she was put behind bars for six years on Friday.

Dear used to give her victim sweets before groping her in changing rooms and repeatedly sexually assaulting her.

The woman would invite the child to her home and abuse her – with each sex act getting more and more serious each time.

When the teenager was off on school holidays, Dear would harass her on the phone and tell her: ‘I miss you so much,’ and ‘I love you’.

Even when the young girl went off to university, Dear travelled thousands of miles to lock her victim in a hotel room and try to assault her there.

At one point, Dear offered the girl £10,000 to stay quiet about the abuse, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

The victim said the abuse has robbed her of her childhood and has left her anxious all the time.

She told the court: ‘I am always fearful about something but don’t know what it is. I am scared that after this court process is complete, I won’t feel any better, and then I am still back at square one. I struggle and live with the feelings of what her actions caused every day.

‘When I hear [Dear’s] name I hate it, the thought and sound of her name makes me feel sick, it’s horrible to think another human’s name makes you feel sick, but it does.

‘Most of the time I just feel angry. I feel incredibly embarrassed because I’m not very good at relationships, I find it hard to build relationships with all people.

‘I no longer trust my own judgement because I trusted her and she abused me. I need to know she cannot and will not ever be able to do this again.’

Dear, former captain of the Ashford women’s hockey team, was reportedly visibly upset while she listened to the girl detail the abuse. She had previously branded her victim’s accusations ‘a lie, sick and disgusting’.

Judge Mark Weekes told Dear she had been convicted on ‘clear and compelling evidence’.

He added: ‘The effect [of your crimes] has been unsurprisingly profound and shocking.

‘Your grooming and your abuse of her took away a key part of her youth – you abused your position of trust in the most appalling fashion.’

After Dear is released, she will have to tell the police whenever she moves to a new area or starts a new job. She has stopped teaching and has no plans to return.

Dear’s defence lawyer said she was of previous good character and has references which ‘continue to speak of her positive character’.

He also told the court that Dear had been attacked and bullied while on remand. She has now been moved to a different location.

In total, Dear was convicted of six charges of historic sexual abuse, four counts of indecent assault, one count of abusing a position of trust and inciting sexual activity with a girl in October.

Dear, who also taught at a performing arts college in nearby Hythe and Rochester Grammar School, was found not guilty of touching a girl over her clothes in the school’s changing rooms.

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