Teacher jailed for raping pupil

A teacher who raped and sexually assaulted one of his pupils after abducting her from a school disco was jailed for nine years today.

Kenneth Anbany, 63, pestered the girl with suggestive remarks and begged her for a date for weeks before he attacked her in Dartmouth, Devon, in the 1980s.

She only came forward after seeing a news report on the internet in 2009 of a court case in which Anbany had admitted sex offences against another girl the previous year.

Sentencing Anbany at Exeter Crown Court today, Judge Graham Cottle said: "It is clear that throughout your career as a teacher you have had a sexual interest in girls of the same age as your victim.

"For many years you have avoided being brought to book for what you did. It was a gross breach of trust and she was completely terrified. Her reaction for years was one of shame, disgust and embarrassment."

There was applause from the public gallery as Anbany was taken down.

His trial in Exeter in March had heard how the seemingly "cool" and "trendy" teacher at Dartmouth College had tried to groom the teenager in class, telling her how attractive she was and begging her to meet him outside school, actions which had left her feeling "uncomfortable".

Anbany, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was "policing" the school disco on the night of the rape when he came across the girl coming out of the toilets. He had previously chatted her up in class and put his arm around her as he helped her with work, something she told the court made her feel "uncomfortable".

She told the court she "naively" agreed to go to his car because she wanted to tell him to stop pestering her. Instead, the court heard, he drove a short distance to a secluded lane and raped her as she sat "shocked" in the passenger seat. Afterwards he dropped her back at the school and went to the pub.

She told her then boyfriend, now her husband, about her ordeal five years after it happened, and also a friend at university.

But it was not until she saw newspaper reports on the internet in 2009 about a conviction for Anbany involving another young girl that she came forward.

The jury rejected his claim that she had fabricated the ordeal because she blamed him for her difficult school years, after hearing that he had admitted sex offences against another girl in 2009 and been accused of acting inappropriately with other teenage girls.

The court also heard that he had a child with a girl he met at school in Berkshire when she was 19, though she told the court their sexual relationship started when she was 15, something he denied.

Stephen Dent, representing Anbany, said his client continued to proclaim his innocence but accepted that he would receive a long prison sentence.

Anbany, Mr Dent said, was "classified disabled" and walked with a stick because of serious Type 2 diabetes.

"He is not a man of good health," he told the court today, adding that Anbany was the sole carer for his mother, who is blind.

Mr Dent described the rape as a "one off", but was interrupted by Judge Cottle, who said: "This man has had a propensity to be sexually attracted to girls of this age all of his life. A 'one-off' is not my approach to this case."

Anbany was sentenced to nine years for the rape and two years for each of two charges of sexual assault, which will be served concurrently.