Freed: Teacher who kissed girl of 13 and sent 2,000 texts

Sam Webb was spared jail after he admitted a charge of sexual activity with a child.

The 34-year-old music teacher, who also worked as a special needs counsellor in Margate, Kent, was caught out when the girl's monthly phone bill soared from £30 to £250.

Prosecutor Simon Clark told Canterbury Crown Court that her parents, who paid her phone bill, discovered almost all the texts had been sent as replies to messages from Webb.

Mr Clark said the teacher first met the girl last year when his estranged wife introduced them at a drama club.

The father of one, who on an Internet site described one of his hobbies as ' lusting after unattainable women' and joined dating websites saying he was 'married but looking', invited the girl to take part in projects at his school and managed to get her phone number.

Mr Clark said Webb and the girl made further contact on Internet chatroom Bebo, which was at first 'perfectly innocent'. But text messages began to get 'more flirtatious' after he asked her to tidy his office.

Mr Clark said: 'He was texting her every day and she was responding every day. Over 2,000 texts were sent in that short period of time. The girl says she felt sorry for him. He had recently split up with his wife. He invited her to his home because he said he had a present for her - and told her he missed her and he loved her.

'On a couple of occasions they would be in situations where she would be uncomfortable about the way he told her he loved her.

'She didn't feel the same but didn't want to hurt him. On several occasions he took her by the hand.

'She was on the bed hugging and kissing him. She felt uncomfortable and frightened by that but she didn't want to upset him. During the time they were seeing each other he asked her to send a picture of herself.'

Webb later told police he 'felt low' and had come to rely on the girl's messages to 'keep going', Mr Clark said.

Webb said he knew it was wrong to carry on seeing her and made the decision to end the relationship himself.

Peter Alcock, defending, said Webb was a man of previous good character who admitted his guilt and was seeking to move on with his life He has since landed a job at a bar in Oxford, where he now lives.

Yesterday he was handed a three-year community order with supervision, ordered to attend a sex offenders' rehabilitation course and to remain on the sex offenders' register for five years.

Judge Nigel van der Bijl told Webb that some people would say he should be jailed - but he believed the community punishment would be more effective. The judge warned him about his future conduct, saying: 'What you did was quite unacceptable and you can't blame this 13-year-old girl for what happened.

'Young girls - and boys - need protecting from themselves and as a teacher you should have known that.

'If you start fancying a 13-year-old girl because you have emotional problems that you can't cope with then you are going to get yourself into considerable trouble and it will result in a substantial custodial sentence.'