Disgraced teacher found naked with pupil says conviction has left her 'stigmatised'

A disgraced teacher who was caught semi-naked with a pupil in her car after a Christmas party is complaining about being stigmatised for the sex offence.

Eppie Sprung Dawson, 38, has set up a charity urging for people to be judged as they are now and not when they committed their crimes.

She was convicted of having sex with a 17-year-old male pupil after patrolling police found them together in the car in a secluded layby in December 2012.

Ms Sprung Dawson was married at the time of the offence for which she was not jailed.

In June 2013 she received a six-month community payback order and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for six months after she admitted sexual activity with a person under 18 while she was his teacher and in a position of trust.

Now, she has gone on a radio phone-in show for BBC Radio Scotland show to complain about the stigma and press attention it created.

She said: "I have a conviction for a sexual offence. I was a teacher and I had an affair with a 17-year-old pupil, so I do have experience of, kind of, living with the challenges that a person can face as a result of having a criminal record.

"I never experienced a custodial sentence, but I certainly did experience stigma.

"I mean, I had an exceptionally large amount of press coverage, media coverage, for many, many years following my conviction.

"And I think I would say that was the most difficult thing I experienced.

"But I mean, of course, as with people with a conviction for a sexual offence particularly, face the highest degree of stigma.

"And so things like employment, even things like not being invited to my daughter’s friends’ birthday parties."

She is now running a charity called Next Chapter Scotland, which helps people with criminal convictions "to navigate the stigma and discrimination that they can face throughout their lives".

It has been funded by the National Lottery Community fund and other organisations.

The show was talking about the early release of prisoners as nearly 500 inmates in Scotland have been let out in the emergency early release scheme to ease overcrowding.

Inmates serving short sentences of under four years who had 180 days or less left to serve were considered for release, not anyone serving longer sentences, or those in jail for sexual, domestic abuse or terror-based offences.

Sprung Dawson also lost her marriage and job after the conviction.

She was 26 at the time and had been giving the dyslexic pupil, of St Joseph’s College in Dumfries, extra English lessons.

When she was sentenced at Dumfries Sheriff Court, judge Sherriff George Jamieson said: "You were there simply to teach but you have been called into temptation and you have committed adultery - your marriage is gone and your career as a teacher is gone.

"What you have been charged with is a breach of trust, and I cannot see that there is anything to be gained by a custodial sentence.

"Had it not been for the fact that you were this young man’s teacher, there would have been no criminality."

She briefly lived with the boy after the offence, but he said they were not in a relationship and moved out.

She was struck off the teaching register in December 2013.