PE teacher had sex with ex-pupil when she was just a child - then told her to lie to save him

A disgraced PE teacher who had sex with a former pupil - then told her to lie about her age - has been jailed.

Steven Laverty, 48, was banned from teaching 10 years ago after his wrongdoing first came to light, but he has only now faced justice over his sickening sexual activity with the girl. A court heard her life was said to have been 'destroyed' by the abuse of trust.

A trial at Liverpool Crown Court previously heard that Laverty had sex with the ex-student during the noughties after she had left the school where he taught - but while she was still under age of 16. Laverty falsely claimed that she had been aged 16 at the time.

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Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, described how the teenager was left self-harming and feeling "isolated" as a result of his offending. She was also said to have been left under a "dark shadow which she feels has destroyed her life".

Laverty, of Stuart Road in Walton, Liverpool, was previously banned from the profession after he was found to have "showed a failure to observe proper boundaries in relation to his professional position" in a "clear abuse of trust", reports The Echo. But he did not face prosecution at this time as he had instructed his victim to tell investigators that she was 16 when they had sex.

This was despite a panel having found that the dad-of-two had also "grabbed a 14-year-old boy in the groin" during a PE lesson. Laverty then took a temporary job as an arts teacher at a school in Greater Manchester, where "he pushed a 12-year-old pupil out of a classroom and pulled another across a floor".

He has no previous convictions. Charlotte Kenny, defending, told the court yesterday