Schoolboy says sex with teacher in plane toilet 'not a fantasy'

Teenager insists relationship was real despite lack of phone conversations, court hears

A schoolboy has insisted his claims he had sex with a teacher in an aeroplane toilet are true and not a “fantasy he wanted to happen”.

The teenager denies making up the story about science teacher Eleanor Wilson, 29, saying the encounter did take place as they returned home from an overseas school trip.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Bristol Crown Court he developed a “bond” with the defendant during the trip in 2015 and continued seeing her when they got home.

Jurors heard Ms Wilson, who was 26 at the time, gave the boy her mobile telephone number, which he saved in his phone as “Smurfette”.

The court heard the teacher and the boy kissed and cuddled in seats at the rear of the plane before she “beckoned” him to the toilets, performing a sex act on him before the pair had full intercourse.

However, Anna Midgley, defending told the boy his story did not add up, suggesting teachers and other students on the busy flight would have witnessed the alleged incident.

She also questioned if other times the boy claims he kissed, cuddled and held hands with the teacher, including in his bedroom and during a trip to country estate outside Bristol, ever happened.

“You were thinking about her a lot, and you were infatuated with her, and you had told your friends that things had happened that in fact had not happened,” Ms Midgley told the court.

“You had boasted to your friends and that led to rumours starting and someone started to blackmail her about that.

“Your parents started to question you and the school started to question you.

“At that point you couldn't say none of this wasn't true or that it didn't happen and you said you had sex on an aeroplane because that's what you told people.”

The boy, who was giving evidence from behind a screen, replied: “That is incorrect.”

Ms Wilson, of Dursley, Gloucestershire, denies four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

The jury heard the boy had written down his feelings in a note on his mobile phone after the allegedly teacher told him she was pregnant with his child and was having an abortion.

But police who recovered the device did not find any other conversations between the boy and Ms Wilson on the phone, the court heard.

The boy told the jury he had deleted the file. When asked why, he replied: “Because it was always a risky situation to keep such material on my telephone.”

Ms Midgley said: “What I am suggesting, so far as your account of there being rolling around on the grass and climbing on top of each other, that's fantasy. What you wrote about is what you wanted to happen.”

The barrister said she believed the boy found the defendant “attractive” and he became “more attracted” to her in the run-up to the trip.

“There was a bond that developed while we were on the trip,” the boy replied.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by PA