Description
Former teacher jailed for grooming and sexually abusing a pupil
A former teacher at Oaks Park High School in Carshalton has been jailed for sexually abusing a child he groomed while employed there in 2020.
Gary Vigar, 34, exchanged more than 2,000 messages with the girl, kissed her repeatedly and made her touch his penis at least six times. The court heard they also had late-night sexual phone calls after his wife had gone to bed.
Vigar initially denied the offences but changed his plea on the second day of his trial at Croydon Crown Court. He admitted two counts of sexual assault of a child by touching, three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. Charges of rape and sexual activity involving penetration were dropped.
On Friday 6 February, Judge Elizabeth Smaller sentenced him to five years and seven months in prison. He must serve at least half before release on licence and was made subject to an eight-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The judge told him:
“You only have yourself to blame. You have taken your life and blown it up. Your career as a teacher is over and more than that you have affected the lives of those close to you.”
The victim reported the abuse in 2021, but the case did not reach trial until November last year. In her statement she said:
“Words don’t feel adequate to explain and describe the effect this abuse has had on me… I have spent many years of my life just trying to survive. I don’t want another innocent young person to live through that nightmare. This isn’t a form of revenge, this is just the justice that I deserve.”
She added that the long delays had made the years “the worst of my young life.”
Judge Smaller expressed regret at the four-year wait and noted that Vigar had deleted messages in an attempt to evade detection. However, she gave him credit for eventually pleading guilty, sparing the victim a full trial, and for seeking counselling.
The victim had told police:
“I was scared that if I didn’t do something he asked… Don’t get me wrong, at the start I was taking part and was asking for it, but towards the end I didn’t really want it. He said he wanted to take my virginity, he always asked me to go to his house and I kept saying no.”