Former teacher jailed for four years over indecent assaults on teenage boy (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Former teacher from Crook jailed over indecent assaults on teenage boy

4:52pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News By Stuart Arnold

A FORMER teacher who indecently assaulted a teenager as they sat together in a cinema before assaulting him twice more at his home has today (Monday, March 18) been jailed for four years.

Aaron Ledean was described by Judge John Walford as having a "persistent, unhealthy attitude towards post pubescent boys".

The 41-year-old, of The Paddock, Crook, County Durham, befriended his victim - who was said to have a crush on him - and the pair began seeing each other on a consensual basis, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Ledean, who taught piano and was also formerly a teacher at a school on Teesside, took the teenager on dates, including a trip to the cinema where he indecently touched him over his clothing, and to bars in Middlesbrough.

The defendant, spared jail in 2008 for downloading and possessing indecent photographs of children, denied three counts of indecent assault, but was convicted last month.

A report prepared on him described him as having a lot of "distortions" around children and sex.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds agreed contact was consensual, but said the case had been brought because of the ages of the defendant and complainant.

The offences took place in the 1990s, although the matters were only reported to police three years ago.

Scott Smith, mitigating, said Leadean had voluntarily ended the contact and urged Judge Walford to impose the least sentence possible.

However, the judge said the purpose of legislation was to "guard and protect young people from their own desires as much as to protect them from predatory males".

He told Ledean: "There are some troubling references within the pre-sentence report that you have and still have a sexual interest in teenage boys of post pubescent age.

"It is important that you address that aspect of your character if you are to stay out of trouble in future."

Ledean was already subject to what was described as a wide ranging sexual offences prevention order which the judge said would continue.

After the case, Detective Constable Rebecca Lisle, of Cleveland police, said: "The victim has been extremely brave in seeing the case through to court and the sentence reflects the serious nature of the crime."