A female tutor has spoken of her relief at being acquitted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old-boy during lessons at his home.
Carolyn Keeling, 64, was found not guilty of six indecent assault charges following a three-day trial at Gloucester crown court.
Keeling, a mother-of-two, who had an unblemished teaching career, was accused of having sex with the boy on at least 100 occasions between 1993 and 1996 while she tutored him.
The boy, now in his thirties with three children, made the allegations to his mother in 2012 after reading of the Jimmy Savile scandal, and the following year went to the police.
Speaking after she was cleared, Keeling, from the village of of Taynton in Gloucestershire, said: “I still can’t believe it actually - I am so pleased.
“I am very grateful to the National Union of Teachers who were backing me financially and my ex-colleagues, friends and family who were backing me emotionally.
“These two years, two months and however many days have been very stressful and now I have a life that I can lead. It is with you every minute of every day and it just never goes away.”
Keeling said that it was important that young people could still feel they would be listened to if they reported alleged abuse to the authorities. “They must not lose their voice,” she said.
“But there must be a way of doing more research, as if the police had done this they would have known that I hadn’t done it. I have had so much support with messages coming from pupils I have not taught for years, so there is always a good bit to come from bad.”
Giving evidence, she rejected claims that she had smoked cannabis and drunk wine while teaching him and insisted she had not slept with him. She denied they had sex at his family home and while out on field trips in the countryside.
