A married teacher at a top private school has been banned from the classroom indefinitely for having an affair with one of his students.
John Boothby, 27, began the relationship with the teenage girl during the summer of 2014 while he was head of philosophy and religious studies at Canford School – a co-educational independent boarding school in Wimborne, Dorset.
The girl – who is not identified – told police the consensual relationship progressed from kissing to sex and included a night in a B&B during school half-term. She told police in July 2014: “It started about two months ago. It was consensual and not forced.”
The teenager explained they became close, they kissed, they gradually became more comfortable around each other and eventually “a sexual relationship did develop, but not that rapidly”.
She also told police she had “ended up in a B&B” with Boothby during half-term, where he had told her that he loved her. She added: “I told him I loved him a week later.”