Ex-teacher denies taking part in ‘s***, marry, kill’ with schoolgirls he ‘locked in classroom’
James Etherington, 34, is alleged to have instigated the game with seven girls at a secondary school in Winsford, Cheshire, in April 2024 where he was employed as a maths and PE teacher
The trial is being heard at Liverpool Crown Court(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A former sports teacher has denied initiating a game of ‘s***, marry, kill’ on school grounds with female students under the age of 16. James Etherington, 34, is accused of starting the game with seven girls at a secondary school in Winsford, Cheshire, in April 2024 where he was working as a maths and PE teacher.
Etherington, who previously played football for Wrexham and Grimsby, is also accused of engaging in other sexualised conversations with the same girls, Liverpool Crown Court heard. The game ‘s***, marry, kill’ involves a player being given three names of individuals and asked, hypothetically, whom they would sleep with, marry, and kill.
It’s been disclosed that the three individuals he allegedly used in the game were teachers at the same school, a crown court heard. The former teacher, from Osborne Road, Prenton, Lancashire, is facing two counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child under 16 for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.
Anna Price, opening the case for the prosecution, told the court that Etherington had allowed seven female students to spend a free period at the end of the day in his classroom.
Earlier that day, one of the girls had asked if they could use his room to ‘get extra maths work done’, to which he agreed. During the free period, Ms Price claimed that Etherington allegedly initiated a ‘highly sexualised’ conversation with the girls.
She stated that Etherington had asked the girls ‘whether they were sexually active, and whether they had seen the film Fifty Shades of Grey’.
The court heard that he attempted to engage them in further discussion about bondage and other extreme sexual practices, as well as the use of the dating app, Tinder.
Etherington, who was once a football manager for the North West Counties division one, also allegedly told the girls he was worried he had a paedophile living in the house behind him.
He then proposed they all play a game of ‘s***, marry, kill’, using three other teachers at the school as subjects in the game, it has been alleged.
Ms Price said: “The girls were made to feel extremely uncomfortable by the conversation, eventually causing one to speak out and bring it to an end.”
She informed the jury that at one point during the sexualised conversation, Etherington had heard another teacher outside the classroom, which led him to quickly get up, turn off the lights, leave the room, and lock the girls inside.
That evening, several of the girls informed their parents about what had transpired, resulting in one father contacting the school the following day.
Etherington was arrested within hours, but denied initiating the conversations and the game. He claims that the girls had instigated everything, and he had done his best to ‘shut it down’.
He also denied the accusations of confining the girls in the classroom, insisting that he had exited upon hearing a loud noise from the adjacent classroom.
Nonetheless, Ms Price stated that the jury will be shown CCTV footage from the hallway outside the classroom, which seemingly depicts Etherington with his keys in a manner suggesting the contrary.
The trial is ongoing.
