A private tutor from Mablethorpe has been jailed for four and a half years after sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy she manipulated and targeted. Emily Drury, 26, admitted five counts of sexual activity with a child at Lincoln Crown Court, pleading guilty to one charge of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity and four charges of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a teenage boy.
Abuse took place between May and June 2025
The abuse occurred on numerous occasions between May and June 2025. Police said Drury targeted the boy after seeing him drinking with friends and offering to tutor him privately ahead of his exams. The court heard she warned him, 'You can't tell anyone about this,' and that he later confided in two friends, sending them a picture of her.
After rumours began, word reached the boy's school, and police were contacted. During an interview, the boy allowed officers to look through his phone, where they found a message from Drury referring to a note and cash she left him. The message read: 'I enjoy every piece of you. I don't know how to stop, or what this is. Here's £20 just in case…Your Em xoxo'.
Victim impact statement read in court
A victim impact statement from the boy was read out during sentencing, with Drury seen wiping tears from her eyes. The boy said Drury told him she was 'obsessed' with him, treated him kindly, bought him clothes, and made him 'feel better' about himself. He said he trusted her and confided in her about personal things, but later felt judged and blamed, and unable to 'simply be a child'.
He said he was initially reluctant to report the abuse, worried people would not take him seriously because of his gender. 'I believed there was a stigma attached to being a male victim of sexual abuse, and that fear made it even harder to cope,' he said. He concluded: 'I realised I had been manipulated. I was put into a situation where I was experiencing emotions and situations no child should have to experience.'
Judge: 'She was the adult; he was the child'
Drury's defence barrister, Jeremy Janes, said she had hoped for a 'lifelong career', which she has now lost, and that she pursued an 'uncharacteristic, fantastical, and unreal relationship' with the child. Character references from her parents and brother were submitted, and her husband and other relatives attended court.
Judge James House KC said only a custodial sentence was appropriate due to the severity of her crimes. 'She was in a position of trust. She was the adult; he was the child,' he said. 'This was not simply a single indiscretion – that would have been bad enough.'
Drury must serve a minimum of half her four-year, six-month sentence before being considered for release. She was also given a sexual harm prevention order and a five-year restraining order, and will be on the sex offenders' register for life.
Detective Constable Julie Jode, from Lincolnshire Police, called her actions 'despicable'. 'As an adult in a position of authority, she was expected to provide guidance, support, and protection. Instead, she used that position to target and manipulate someone who should have been able to trust her implicitly,' she said. Police praised the boy's 'remarkable courage and resilience', insisting that 'gender is not a factor in how reports of sexual abuse are investigated'.
