A former teacher has been sentenced for sexually abusing a teenage pupil at one of the schools where she worked.
Natasha Smith, 35, who is also a former police officer, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a girl while an adult in a position of trust.
The offence took place about 12 years ago, Hove Crown Court was told, and Smith denied three further offences which Judge Christine Henson ordered to lie on the file.
Smith, of North Street, Wick, Littlehampton, was initially a food technician and then a cover supervisor at Angmering High School where she met the teenager.
She went on to teach at Durrington High School but left her job while the offence was being investigated by Sussex Police.
Smith previously worked for the force as a PC but the court was told that she now worked as a delivery driver after leaving her teaching job.
The court heard from the girl who was groomed and abused and who is now in her twenties, living in Worthing and working for a charity. Her identity is protected by law.
She read a victim impact statement and said: “It’s hard to explain what it does to you when someone who had all the power, age, authority, experience, chooses not to protect or guide you, but to exploit your vulnerability for their own gain.
“At the time, I had just turned 17. I had only just completed my GCSEs.”
She said that she was insecure and deeply vulnerable and that Smith took advantage of her for four years.
She told the court: “What I naively thought was love was something I didn’t even have the tools to understand – and only left me confused about what a healthy relationship should look like and my own self-worth.
“Most of my twenties were spent untangling that damage. I believed I wasn’t worthy of real love. That I had to accept crumbs. That being treated with kindness or respect was asking too much.
“And I remember wondering if being loved meant losing every piece of myself just to feel chosen.
“But meeting my wife changed that. I knew the moment I met her that love feels completely different.
“She’s shown me what care looks like when it isn’t laced with control or fear. She is nothing like you.
“I’d been conditioned to believe I didn’t deserve safety or security. And that kind of trauma doesn’t just go away.”
She told the court that she had struggled with “constant feelings of shame” and had turned down opportunities to achieve her ambitions as a direct effect of the trauma resulting from the abuse.
It had led to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), requiring medication “just to get through the day”.
She said: “There will never be enough space in this statement to list everything I’ve lost
- the loss of career opportunities and financial security
- the loss of trust in others and in myself
- the financial loss
“At one point I was paying £240 a month for over a year seeing a specialist psychotherapist. And worst of all, (at one point) I reached such a dark place that I made an attempt on my own life.
“I wasn’t sure how to keep living with the way I was feeling. I couldn’t enjoy the joy of love without second-guessing it. I couldn’t see a future that didn’t feel broken.
“This case is not one of a fleeting lapse in judgment. Four years is every ounce intentional, prolonged and deliberate.
“No matter what sentence is handed down today, you will carry the truth of what you did to me for the rest of your life.”
Judge Henson imposed an 18-month community order, requiring Smith to complete 80 hours of unpaid work within 12 months and up to 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
Smith was also ordered to pay £900 compensation and a victim surcharge of £60 and told that she must register as a sex offender for five years.
