A nationally-acclaimed head teacher has been found guilty of having underage sex with two boys. Anne Lakey, 55, from Stanley, County Durham, had denied 13 counts of indecent assault on two teenagers in the 1980s. However, a jury at Teesside Crown Court found her guilty of all charges after a two-week trial.
Judge Howard Crowson warned Lakey to expect a jail term when she is sentenced on Wednesday. He said the type of sentence handed down would be 'inevitable' but granted her bail as 'an act of mercy'. Lakey committed the offences over a three-year period, with some carried out when she was a history teacher in her late 20s.
The teacher, described by prosecutors as a 'sexual predator', targeted a 15-year-old boy and another victim aged 13 or 14. During her trial, one of the victims told jurors the mother-of-one took his virginity after letting him watch her bathe.
Lakey went on to have a successful career and was praised for turning a failing school into one of the country's most improved. But in 2012, one of her victims emailed her school, which led to her being suspended and subsequently reported to police.
Det Insp Aelf Sampson, of Durham Police, said the boys had been 'vulnerable victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a woman who had some power and responsibility for them.' He added: 'These boys should have been safe in her company, instead of being damaged by their experience. Regardless of whether these boys appear to have been willing participants in the offences, they could not consent by law to what happened.'
Lakey had earlier admitted having a sexual relationship with the older victim when he was 18 and she was in her early 30s.
