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Amy Gehring
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Gehring: I did have sex with boy, 16
By By DUNCAN ROBERTS
CANADIAN supply teacher Amy Gehring, who was cleared of indecently
assaulting two young boys, today admitted she did have sex with a
16-year-old boy.
The 26-year-old supply teacher said it happened when she worked at
another school in Surrey.
But Ms Gehring also admitted that she could not recall whether she
also had sex with a boy of 15 while at the same school, as she accused
British boys of being more forward and denying she had corrupted
anyone.
Ms Gehring was cleared by a jury at Guildford Crown Court last month
of having sex with two teenage pupils.
She was also cleared of three charges of indecent assault and the
judge ordered a verdict of not guilty on the fourth.
In her first broadcast interview since her acquittal on February 4,
the 26-year-old biology teacher said she was ashamed of what she had
done, but that the boys involved had understood what was happening.
And she suggested that children were more sexually active in Britain
than in her homeland.
She said: "Those boys weren’t stupid. They knew what they were doing.
I think there is a difference between when I was 15 at home in Canada
and 15-year-olds today here. There’s a big difference.
"At my first school, there were 11-year-old kids that were telling me
they were having sex."
Ms Gehring added: "I put myself into situations I shouldn’t have at
parties because I became close to them. Looking back I feel quite
stupid for all of the things that I did.
"I was away from my family in a different country and I was spending
most of my time with them. I became one of the kids basically."
It was at her first school that Ms Gehring said she was "too drunk" to
remember having slept with the 15-year-old boy.
"The chances are that I could have, but I can’t remember doing it.
That sounds really bad."
Following her acquittal by a jury of seven men and five women at
Guildford Crown Court, it was revealed that Ms Gehring, who arrived to
teach in the UK in the summer of 2000, had similar allegations against
her investigated by police and had been suspended by the first school
she taught at following her arrival in England.
The biology teacher was charged with indecently assaulting two boys at
the second school who were under the age of consent.
Ms Gehring was said to have carried out the offences on brothers aged
15 and 14.
The Canadian national, now living in Hampton, west London, denied
having sex with the pupils and claimed they concocted their stories.
After the trial it emerged that Ms Gehring continued to work in
schools after police warned she was a "risk".
It emerged that police had previously investigated Miss Gehring for
alleged assaults at another school in Surrey.
The Government said the case raised "extremely serious issues" with
regards to supply teachers and that they planned to speak to agencies
about the problem.
Miss Gehring, of Hampton, south-west London, was accused of assaulting
two brothers, aged 14 and 15, she met while teaching.
The offences were alleged to have begun on 19 November 2000, when Miss
Gehring was aged 25 and a biology supply teacher at a Surrey
comprehensive.
She was charged with seducing the boys at a New Year's Eve party while
drunk on Malibu.
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