*NEWSBITES

He was 32. She was 14. The teacher and student got to know each other on a class trip. He followed up with regular text messages. The girl felt grown up, taken seriously, and wondered if this might be her One True Love. The teacher – considered "cool" by the students at school – began calling the girl "Honey" and "Honeybear" and getting more insistent.

The teacher taught Catholic religion, mathematics and English, but was actually only used as a substitute three times by the school.

"It was always about sex," the teen stated. They first had sex at the teacher's home, but later it happened at the school too – in the cleaning cupboard, for example. The affair lasted for five months.

But now, five years later, the teacher has been cleared of all charges: not guilty, is the court verdict. The young woman and her parents are stunned, the public outraged, particularly since the teenage girl was not the man's first victim. The year before, he had sent similar text messages to her older sister.

The court based its verdict on the fact that, according to present laws, the girl was not a student entrusted to his care because he was only a substitute teacher. (The age of consent in Germany is 14)

Justice Minister Beate Merk of the German state of Bavaria wants to make such scandalous verdicts impossible in the future, and has drafted an amendment that would make up for this gap in existing legislation. "It is absolutely unacceptable that the protection of school children against sexual predators should be a matter of whether a teacher is a substitute or not," she told Die Welt.

Read the full story in German by Peter Issig

Photo - DanielAd

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations