A supply teacher has been jailed for eight and a half years for sexually assaulting six girls at a primary school in North Yorkshire. Jonathan Philip Clayton, 27, was convicted of 13 counts of sexually touching girls aged between seven and 11 over a six-week period in 2019.
North Yorkshire police described Clayton as a 'very manipulative individual who used his trusted position as a teacher to touch these very young and vulnerable girls for his own sexual gratification'. The assaults occurred from March to May 2019 at a school that cannot be named.
The court heard that Clayton had faced a similar allegation involving a pupil at a school where he taught in 2017, but the charge was dropped. Vision for Education, the supply agency that employed him, said information about the 2017 allegation had been 'withheld' and that the first school had confirmed he was suitable to work with children.
Clayton, from Carlton in Stockton-on-Tees, denied the offences, claiming his behaviour was not sexual and that he was simply comforting or helping the children. Detective Constable Gillian Gowling said Clayton displayed 'an extremely worrying pattern of behaviour' and took advantage of his victims when they were upset.
The school's head teacher told the court they were unaware of Clayton's past. Vision for Education said it suspended him immediately upon learning of the latest accusations. Clayton had also tried to find work in China after being banned from working in the UK following the new allegations.
