A former drama school teacher in England was sentenced to nine months in jail for grooming one of her female students into having an “exploitative” sexual relationship — during which the girl performed alongside her at a Rod Stewart concert, according to reports.
Kim Connor, a 46-year-old mother of two, began teaching the victim, now 31, at a performing arts school when she was just 9. Some six years later, the pair were attending West End shows, eating out at restaurants and even vacationing together, the Bury Times reports.
Connor, who was suspended as head of performing arts at St. Monica’s Roman Catholic High School in Prestwich when the accusations surfaced, had “taken the best years” of the victim’s life and left her struggling with mental issues, she said in court.
Prosecutor Darren Preston said the pair started getting affectionate by hugging and kissing when the girl was just 14. One year later, Connor and the girl starting getting “more sexual” and the student would stay at the teacher’s home by the time she was 16, the newspaper reports.
Connor, of Salford, earned the trust of the girl’s parents and told her to say she was 21 if anyone ever asked her age in public, the Manchester Evening News reports.
“She knew full well what she was doing was wrong,” Preston said in March of Connor, who claimed the sexual relationship started when the girl was 18.
The victim — who said she still suffers from depression due to the illicit relationship that ended when she was 20 — reportedly decided to expose the abuse in response to the #MeToo movement.
“What Kim Connor did affected me for years,” the victim told a judge in March. “She told me to keep the relationship a secret, not through excitement, but because it was wrong.”
Connor also bought the girl tickets for West End shows and invited her to sing on stage with her in a choir at a Rod Stewart concert in Manchester, The Sun reports.
Connor, who was sentenced Tuesday, will also have to register as a sex offender, the Bury Times reports.
“This was an abusive relationship and young people in situations like this can be damaged in many ways,” Judge John Edwards told Connor. “You should have taken steps to distance yourself from your victim rather than encouraging her.”