A gravely injured soldier turned teacher who used his military service record ‘as a shield to hide his abuse’ of a young pupil was jailed for four-and-a-half years today.
Former Light Dragoons sergeant Simon Taylor, 43, broke nearly every bone in his body when he was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan and later had a leg amputated.
He eventually left the Army and retrained as a teacher before getting a job at Hethersett Academy in Norfolk where he used his position as behaviour lead and pastoral care manager to groom his victim.
The father-of-three groped and kissed the girl in locations including a school office and his car.
He also sent her depraved messages in which he described performing sex acts on himself while thinking of her, and sent her intimate photos, demanding she do the same or he would kill himself.
Taylor was due to face trial at Norwich Crown Court in October over eight allegations but admitted five offences before the start of the hearing, including sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
Sentencing him today, Judge Andrew Shaw said he acknowledged Taylor’s service to his country and ‘note with sadness that you were severely injured by an improvised explosive device’.
But he added he agreed with a psychiatric report which stated there was ‘no identifiable link’ between his PTSD and his ‘decision to groom and sexually abuse a child to whom you were sexually attracted’.
Taylor broke nearly every bone in his body when he was hit by the roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009. His right leg was amputated two years later
The judge told the defendant: ‘She was a vulnerable child you targeted, manipulated and groomed into believing that you were the only adult who cared for her…
‘You placed her under intolerable pressure and made her think she would lose you if she didn’t give in to your persistent requests for sexual activity with her.
‘She would come to realise that you were motivated , not by love for her, but lustful urges for her teenage body.’
He added no one in court would forget how the girl, who is now frightened to leave her home and suffers from panic attacks and PTSD, described how she had repeatedly scrubbed her body in the shower to try and rub out the memory of him touching her.
In a victim impact statement Taylor’s victim bravely read out in court from behind a screen, she described how the defendant had exploited her vulnerability and left her suicidal.
‘I felt pressure that I would lose him if I did not do what he wanted. All I wanted was to be loved,’ she said.
All the offences took place during a two-and-a-half year period between August 2019 and January 2022, with some occurring after she had left the school.
Isobel Ascherson, prosecuting, said Taylor had indicated he was best suited to help the girl due to his service as a soldier, meaning he was ‘using it as a shield to hide his abuse’.
The disgraced ex-soldier was jailed at Norwich Crown Court after admitting five offences including sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust
He effectively encouraged her bad behaviour as a pupil so he could spend more time with her ‘under the guidance of helping her’, leading her to ‘trust him as a friend, not just another teacher’.
Taylor ‘groomed and conditioned her’ by making ‘her think that he was the only one who cared and would help her’.
Miss Ascherson said the defendant and the girl initially contacted each other through the school messaging platform.
He would tell her that he was worried about her, gave her nicknames, said he was excited about seeing her and shared personal information about his family.
A school investigation into the exchanges found he had been unprofessional and he was given a written warning and told to stay away from her in future. But he continued to contact her by other methods, such as email and Instagram.
The messages became sexualised and included statements like ‘I w*** over you’ and declared that he wanted to meet her outside school and have sex with her. He also sent pictures of his private parts and of him pleasuring himself.
Other messages included ‘do you have another pic of you in that dress but where you are taking it off’ and one where he asked her to send an intimate photo, adding: ‘If you loved me, you would.’
Taylor had ‘resorted to emotional blackmail’ and ‘knew what buttons to press’, telling the girl that he would kill himself if she did not send him images in return, Miss Acherson said.
Former Light Dragoons sergeant Simon Taylor, 43, provided pastoral support at Hethersett Academy in Norfolk
Despite being moved to work with younger pupils, he ‘continued to have repeated contact with the pupil’ and ‘consistently contrived to be with her’, the court heard.
He was told again not to speak to her but when the girl was in a school office with him, he slid his hands up her skirt and rubbed her upper thigh which made her ‘feel uncomfortable’.
Taylor also met her in his car and ‘asked her for a kiss’. When they did so, he grabbed her breasts, said Miss Ascherson.
On the day she left the school, he gave her a necklace. On another occasion after she had left school, he met her in his car and they again kissed and he put his hand up her top.
Miss Ascherson said: ‘She tried to say no and tried to get him off and push him off, but he carried on.’
The girl told police and Taylor’s wife what had happened in March 2022.
During an interview with police, he claimed he had done nothing to her and insisted the girl had been hounding and stalking him – although he later admitted kissing her.
Miss Ascherson said there had also been ‘wider grooming and manipulation’ of the girl’s mother.
The father-of-three credited taking up cycling for helping him to face the post-traumatic stress disorder he developed after suffering feelings of guilt for his colleague who died in the blast
In her victim impact statement, the victim said Taylor had ‘destroyed’ her life by abusing her trust, manipulating her and exploiting her vulnerability when she was a child.
She added: ‘I felt pressure that I would lose him if I did not do what he wanted. All I wanted was to be loved.
‘He was the first man to show me attention. He listened to me and made me feel special… He became my entire world…
‘At the time he made me feel grown up and mature. As a child, I was led to believe it was normal.’
But the girl said she had ended up living in fear of him, suffering ‘constant sickness, panic and dread’, and now believed he had ‘stolen her childhood.
She added she had also been left suicidal and his initial not guilty pleas had ‘prolonged her suffering’.
Taylor admitted two counts of sexual assault, one of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust, and two charges of sexual communications with a child.
Richard English KC, defending, said his client accepted he had caused ‘great harm’ to the girl, her family and his own family as well as himself. But he said that Taylor had expressed ‘genuine remorse, sorrow and shame’ for his actions’.
Taylor has used the sport to take part in high-profile fundraising events for veterans’ charities, including long-distance mountain bike rides across northern England and the longest downhill cycle race in the world in the Alps
Mr English also suggested the offences would not have happened if Taylor had not been injured by the bomb but he didn’t elaborate, other than to say he had ‘received no proper or effective therapeutic intervention after his discharge from the Army’.
Taylor was a sergeant with the Light Dragoons and served in Bosnia and Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan.
The super-fit PT instructor was a reconnaissance troop corporal in 2009 when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device which killed the driver, Lance Corporal Richard Brandon.
The blast threw Taylor out of the vehicle and left him in a coma and multiple injuries including the broken bones, a traumatic brain injury, a collapsed lung, spinal fractures and a shattered ankle.
He had a cage fitted around his spine, his shoulder pinned and arm plated, while his right leg was amputated below the knee in 2011 as a result of the injuries.
He spoke previously of how he had tried to keep the leg as he ‘just wanted to be able to make a life for my family and do things with them’.
‘So I kept the leg initially and they tried to pin it but it never repaired properly and in 2011 I decided to have it amputated. It was not an easy decision,’ he added.
He was promoted to sergeant while working in the welfare unit and took up cycling in 2012, shortly before being medically discharged from the Army, after Help for Heroes funded a mountain bike through its grants scheme.
He credited the sport with helping him to face the post-traumatic stress disorder he developed after suffering feelings of guilt for his colleague who died in the blast.
‘My first time out after receiving it, I went further in that 15-minute ride than I’d been in the last two years. I became addicted,’ he said.
‘It’s my way of helping with the psychological side of things, getting out and about in nature. It gives me the space to get my head together.
‘I only have one leg for power but when it comes to the downhill stints I’m not limited; I have a sense of freedom.’
He has used the sport to take part in high-profile fundraising events for veterans’ charities.
Events included long-distance mountain bike rides across northern England and the longest downhill cycle race in the world in the Alps.
Taylor, formerly of Dereham but who gave an address in court of Marston Jabbett near Bedworth, in Warwickshire, received concurrent four-and-a-half year jail terms for each of the two sexual assaults, 18 months concurrent for each of the two charges of sexual communication with a child, and eight months for sexual activity while in position of trust.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register, made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life and given a restraining order not to contact the girl’s family.
Hethersett School is a co-educational academy school with around 1,200 pupils run by Inspiration Trust, which is responsible for 21 primary and secondary schools or sixth forms.
The trust said Taylor had not been employed there since July 2021.
In a statement issued following his conviction, it said: ‘The Trust places the highest priority on safeguarding and the protection of children and young people.
‘All colleagues undergo rigorous pre-employment checks, including enhanced DBS screening, and are subject to ongoing safeguarding training and supervision throughout their employment.
‘Where concerns arise, we work closely with statutory agencies to ensure swift and effective action is taken.’
Detective Constable Hannah Spinks, who led the investigation, said ‘The courage shown by this young victim has been extraordinary. Despite the devastating impact these crimes have had on her, she stood strong throughout this investigation.
‘Simon Taylor manipulated a child who should have been safe in his care, robbing her of her childhood and causing harm that will endure for years.
‘I hope the fact that he is now behind bars will bring the victim and her family some measure of comfort as they start to rebuild their lives.’