Gareth Ritter, 44, of Great Tyrmynach Farm, Monmouthshire, and former assistant head at Willows High in Cardiff, has appeared in court accused of sexually assaulting a teenager. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old in Cardiff in 2015.
Alleged assault at Cardiff Bay flat
Merthyr Crown Court heard on Tuesday how the teacher attended an event with the complainant after which the alleged assault took place in a flat he owned in Cardiff Bay. Giving the teenager a lift home, Ritter told the complainant he needed to stop off for "five minutes" to check the flat, she told the court. They went upstairs to the flat where he took her to see the view from the balcony. He then started to comment on her dress and touched her without permission, she alleged.
Giving evidence, the complainant, who was not a pupil at Willows, told the hearing on September 29: "He mentioned his wife did not know about the flat and he liked to keep his money separate. He made several comments about how I looked." She told the court that Ritter then turned to her on the balcony and said "look at your tits" and started to giggle.
Complainant's evidence in court
He then moved in to touch her, she told the court. "He put his right hand on my lower back and moved down to my bum." Asked by Recorder Dyfed Llion Thomas how this made her feel, the complainant said she was shocked and uncomfortable and walked away from him into the living room. She said Ritter followed and asked if she wanted to see the bedroom. He went into the bedroom but when she didn't follow he then returned and stood in front of her smiling but not speaking.
The woman told the court she asked Ritter if he was all right and reminded him her father was expecting her. He then touched her without permission again and put his tongue in her mouth, she alleged. She told the court: "My back was towards the wall and Gareth was in front of me. (He put) one hand out behind my back and down to my bum and then lent in and kissed me. I remember his tongue going into my mouth. I was against the wall and could not step back. I turned my face away. I couldn't go anywhere."
Police report years later
The court heard that she put out her hands and told the defendant: "I don't do this. I am a good girl." "I felt really uncomfortable. I had nowhere to go. I found it hard to say stop and did not know how to react," she told the court. She said Ritter then agreed to take her home, telling her repeatedly on the drive back that what had happened was between them and asking her if she was going to tell anyone. Asked how she responded, the complainant told the court: "He said 'are you going to tell anyone?' I said no. What do you say in that situation? He was someone I looked up to. How do you confront that? Do I argue with someone giving me a lift home?" She added that Ritter was "very influential and popular and had lots of friends".
She said she didn't report the matter to police at the time but did tell her partner, now husband, and a friend. It was only years later that the alleged sexual assault was reported to police. In 2022, as a result of a separate matter, for which Ritter was not found guilty, his phone was seized by police and explicit images of the complainant were found on the device, the hearing was told. These images had been taken consensually by the complainant's then partner earlier in 2015 and shared without either of their consent, prosecutor Andrew Davies explained. When the complainant was told they had been found on Ritter's phone by police in 2022 she then reported the separate, alleged sexual assault.
Prosecution and defence statements
It is unlawful to have explicit images of a child (anyone aged under 18) and Ritter subsequently pleaded guilty to two offences regarding these images, the prosecution told the court. "Gareth Ritter manipulated his experience, reputation and authority to put himself in a position where he took a 17-year-old girl alone to a flat in Cardiff Bay and there he sexually assaulted her," Mr Davies told the court.
Jenny Yeo, defending, told the court her client denies kissing or touching the 17-year-old. "Nothing at all untoward happened in the flat that night," she said. The Education Workforce Council Wales, the body responsible for registering teachers, lists Ritter as ineligible for registration subject to an interim suspension order as of December 2024. The hearing continues.
