Physics teacher guilty of sex with student
By Katie Bice
April 03, 2008 02:43pm
Article from: Herald Sun
A TEACHER accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student and paying for her abortion has been found guilty on nine counts.
Stephen Peter Morrow, 55, from the Gold Coast, had pleaded not guilty on 11 counts of sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old child under his care, supervision or authority.
A Victorian County Court jury today found him guilty on nine of those counts after more than seven hours of deliberation.
Morrow had told the jury he had sex with the girl only once - in a motel 2½ years after she finished school - and denied he had got her pregnant while she was in year 12.
Morrow said claims he had made the girl pregnant, paid for her abortion and offered her $110 a week were "nonsense and pure garbage''.
He said they were friends when he taught her physics in year 12 and he drove her home from school about seven times.
He told the jury giving lifts to students was "not generally done'', and several times they met in the street next to the school, "just to avoid gossip''.
Morrow said letters the girl gave him after the school year ended caused him to "feel romantic towards her''.
Judge Thomas Wodak remanded Morrow in custody to reappear in court for a pre-sentence hearing on April 9.
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