A 46-year-old teacher who was accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old student has been cleared of her charges after the jury found out that the teen had faked the abuse as part of a "fantasy" he created.
Rebecca Whitehurst cried tears of gratitude and mouthed "thank you" to jurors after they found her not guilty of sexually touching a "troubled young boy" twice and sending him inappropriate messages in April 2019.
The married mom-of-two was accused of sexually abusing the teenager in the back of her car when they were said to have secretly met in Fallowfield, Manchester.
She was also alleged to have communicated with the minor over WhatsApp for her own sexual gratification, Manchester Evening News reported.
However, Whitehurst claimed the boy made up the sexual encounters after she emailed him through the school system and invited him to one of her 'mindfulness sessions' to help with his mental health issues.
The teen reported replied with a ghost emoji which the teacher believed was a signal he wanted to open up with her on Snapchat, as the ghost is the company’s logo.
"He told me he didn’t want to tell me on email as he didn’t trust it. I sent him an email with my Snapchat username for him to find me so that he could tell me what the secret was," Whitehurst said.
"The secret was that he was in love with me."
The teacher threatened to report the inappropriate comments to the authorities but felt "scared" she would be held responsible for "breaking the cardinal rule" by sharing her non-school contact details with a student, Manchester Crown Court heard.
"He was angry and told me it was a mistake to give him my Snapchat username, that he could do what he wanted and the school would believe him," Whitehurst said.
The teen also told her he had "thought of killing himself" and Whitehurst said she feared the outcome if she broke contact, adding she "felt responsible for him".
The teacher recalled an instance when the boy came to her classroom and stuck his tongue down her throat.
Whitehurst said the boy touched her in intimate areas before "slapping her around the face and spitting at her at least ten times".
The teen also gave his teacher a necklace which Whitehurst said she wore a few times because she was "worried he would kick off at her."
"I tried to reduce the opportunities to make him angry," she said.
Whitehurst said the boy then sent her naked images of himself, which she deleted immediately before telling him to stop.
The teacher admitted sending the boy a picture of herself in her running kit but claimed she was trying to encourage him to "get out and get some fresh air".
"I felt I had done something wrong. I’m the adult and he’s the child – I was embarrassed and ashamed that I mismanaged the situation," Whitehurst said.
When police interviewed the boy he told the officers his teacher "knew what she was doing" and that it was "entirely wrong".
But he later changed his statements saying she had "just made a mistake", insisting he had a crush and was in love with her.
During cross-examination in court via videolink, the teen said he was "obsessed" with his teacher and would contact her frequently.
The court also heard no sexual images were found by the police. The boy claimed he deleted some messages "to protect her".
Whitehurst sobbed in the dock as she was acquitted on July 12, after the defense proved the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had faked the whole thing as part of his own "fantasy".
"Yes, I told him on so many levels that it was inappropriate," Whitehurst said.
"I told him nothing like that is ever going to happen, it was a complete misunderstanding and it was never going to happen."
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