Former Prescot teacher denies rape of 15 year-old-pupil who had a "crush" on him in 1990s

A teacher has been accused of the rape and indecent assault of a 15-year-old pupil who had a “crush” on him in the nineties.

Malcolm Nicholson, 46, a former science teacher at St Edmund Arrowsmith school in Prescot , is alleged to have taken advantage of the “vulnerable” girl, now in her thirties, after telling her he “wanted to be her first.”

Nicholson, who now lives in Morton Carr Lane in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, denies the charges and is standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court .

His accuser came forward in 2014, after watching news reports on the crimes of notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile and realising: “I was like those victims.”

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, said: “The complainant thinks that the defendant realised, as time and lessons went by, that she had a crush on him. And the complainant started to think that it wasn’t just a one way crush; that the defendant seemed to have feelings for her and that they began to flirt with each other.

“This progressed to an occasion when he kept the complainant back after a lesson and asked her if she wanted to meet up outside of school time. And she agreed.”

Stories from the courts

The court heard Nicholson picked the girl up from outside a local pub after she told her parents she was going to a friend’s house, and took her back to his address.

Mr Bonner said the defendant repeatedly told the girl that “know one could know they were together,” and that on the first occasion they kissed and talked, but nothing more.

After several more meetings the complainant realised that Nicholson wanted “things to go further,” the court heard.

The jury were played footage of the woman’s police interview, in which she described the encounter.

She said: “He told me I would really like to be your first. I got myself undressed and I got into his bed, and then he came and he just lied (sic) on top of me, not completely but a bit to one side, and he was touching me and touching my breasts.”

The court heard Nicholson performed a sex act on the complainant, who then decided she did not want things to go any further.

The woman told officers: “I just remember saying to him I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I’m not ready.” She said Nicholson told her “it won’t hurt, I promise” before raping her.

The court heard the pair had sex on one more occasion, when Nicholson took her to stay at his parents house in Middlesbrough, who were away on holiday.

In her interview she said he took her to see the film Indecent Proposal before taking her to a nightclub and having sex with her back at the house, although he is not charged in relation to this incident.

The court also heard Nicholson tried to buy the woman’s silence after begging her to not involve the police in a series of texts and phone calls.

In a phone call, which was also heard by the woman’s husband, Nicholson allegedly offered to pay the woman £200,000 not to involve the police, and later agreed to make an initial transfer of £8,000.

However the woman claimed she withdrew the £8,000 from her account and burned it in her back garden, because it made her feel “powerful.”

She told the court she was inspired to contact him when an old school friend told her Nicholson was on Twitter.

After obtaining his phone number she messaged him to say “I have issues with what you did to me when I was 15 years old, and having a school reunion has brought it all back.”

In one message she asked him: “Why did you have sex with me when I was 15?”

Nicholson allegedly replied: “It was for my own insecurities.”

When she told him she was planning to inform the police he allegedly said: “Oh God, oh please don’t, I will lose everything, I will lose my wife and children and my job.”

Giving evidence in court, the complainant said she had wanted to get Nicholson’s name on her account “to prove what he had done” so that she could “expose him as a paedophile.”

She will be cross examined tomorrow (Wednesday).

(Proceeding)

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/