Female maths tutor sexually abused teenage boy she taught online

Woman cynically took advantage of youngster for her own gratification in an appalling breach of trust, court told

A female maths tutor who sexually abused a vulnerable teenage boy she had been teaching online has been jailed for six years.
Holly Rouse-Sweeney, 37, has been jailed for six years after “cynically took advantage” of the youngster “for her own sexual gratification”, a court heard.
The private tutor’s abuse was described by police as an “appalling breach of trust by a woman who had been trusted to spend time with a vulnerable child”.
Rouse-Sweeney was caught when the boy’s mother found inappropriate WhatsApp messages on his phone and contacted police in May last year.
Officers then discovered several incriminating diary entries on her laptop in which she acknowledged the abuse and even referenced the boy’s age.
Rouse-Sweeney pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a boy, and four counts of causing a boy to engage in sexual activity.
She claimed that her actions had been influenced by a long-standing mental health condition.
Rouse-Sweeney, of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday.
She was also added to the sex offenders register and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.
She was additionally handed a restraining order forbidding her from any future contact with her victim.
Det Con Keeley Bringhurst, a child abuse specialist at Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This was an appalling breach of trust by a woman who had been trusted to spend time with a vulnerable child.
“Instead of teaching him mathematics, she cynically took advantage of him for her own sexual gratification.
“I know this abuse has had a significant impact on the victim and his family and I hope they will be comforted by this very strong sentence.”
It comes after maths teacher Rebecca Joynes was jailed for having sex with two schoolboys.
Joynes, 30, gave birth to a baby by one of the boys earlier this year, who the judge described as “entirely innocent” before warning the mother that “you must be under no illusion what’s going to happen” when sentenced.
Joynes earned the nickname “Bunda Becky” – a reference to her bottom – from students, and blamed being lonely during the Covid lockdown for taking the 15-year-old boys back to her Salford Quays apartment.
After a two-week trial, she was unanimously found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.