Teacher admits she took Pill after drunken party with pupils

The teacher accused of seducing two schoolboy brothers admitted yesterday she took the morning-after pill on being told that she had had sex with a third boy.

Amy Gehring, 26, admitted taking the pill after hearing rumours that she had sex in a lavatory with the boy at a party.

Miss Gehring told Guildford Crown Court that she could not remember what had happened at the party because she was so drunk that she had passed out. "I don't remember anything like that happening. I thought, 'Oh my God, if that happened and he ejaculated inside me I could be pregnant.' I felt sick," she said.

She fought back tears as she insisted that all the children who had given evidence against her were lying.

Miss Gehring, a science supply teacher, admitted that she had found the elder brother attractive but said she would never have wanted a relationship with any pupil.

She told the court she had suffered inappropriate sexual conduct at the hands of her pupils, saying they had grabbed, touched or made gestures about her every day.

Miss Gehring, a Canadian national living in Hampton, west London, faces four charges of indecent assault at Guildford Crown Court. She is accused of having had sex three times with a 15-year-old boy and once in an alleyway with his younger brother, then aged 14.

Earlier, the trial judge directed the jury to find her not guilty of one offence of indecent assault against the third boy, 15, saying there was insufficient evidence. Miss Gehring was cleared of the charge against the youngster.

Questioned by Andrew Thompson, the defence barrister, about whether she had ever had sex with the elder of the two brothers, she replied: "No. Never."

Asked about the boy's allegation that she seduced him in an alleyway while walking with him after school, she vigorously denied having sexual intercourse with him, and insisted that he had told her that he was 16 years old, and had twice asked her for her mobile phone number.

Miss Gehring admitted they became friends and that she found him attractive, but insisted she did not want a relationship with him, or with any other pupil. At the New Year's Eve party where she is alleged to have had sex with the same boy she said she was extremely drunk and being sick, and could not remember what had happened that evening.

Questioned about her behaviour while she taught at the school, she said: "I can't believe that was me. I should never have become friends with them in that way. I looked at them as if they were my friends at home."

Miss Gehring told the court she had come to England alone in August 2000, having split from her boyfriend after five and a half years. The teacher, originally from Ottawa, was employed at a Surrey school at the time of the alleged offences between November 2000 and January 2001. Neither the school nor the pupils can be identified for legal reasons.

Miss Gehring said she had come to England to make a new start. She told the court: "I wanted to go, to get away and try to live my life without my ex-boyfriend in the background."

On arriving in the country she said she had been lonely and had no friends or family to turn to. She told the court that the daily two-hour train journey she made to and from the school meant that she had had no time to meet people of her own age.

The trial continues.