A female teacher who had sex with a schoolboy after blindfolding him and tying him to a bed faces jail after being convicted of child abuse.
A jury found Deborah Franklin, 65, a former teacher at a Hertfordshire preparatory school, guilty of eight counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14 between 1991 and 1995.
In a video interview, the victim, now in his 40s, said he was nine when he joined Franklin’s class at the independent school where fees are now £18,000 a year, and she became his private tutor.
Franklin’s historical offences were committed when the maximum sentence for each count was only two years in prison. In 1997 the law was changed, increasing the maximum sentence to 10 years, but she will be sentenced under the old tariff.
The case against the career teacher rested on the detailed and emotional testimony of her former pupil who revealed that she groomed and sexually abused him over a period of several years when he was a child in her care.
The victim, from a wealthy family, was left with years of mental trauma following the abuse. His elder sister and brother, as well as a schoolfriend, all gave evidence corroborating his account.
Franklin claimed not to remember the boy when first confronted by police, despite numerous photographs of them arm in arm and even once holding hands on a school trip.
The complainant told police and later the court that what began as a close relationship with a popular teacher developed into repeated sexual activity which he only fully understood years later.
Deborah Franklin, 65, was found guilty of eight counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14 between 1991 and 1995
Franklin faces jail following the guilty verdict, which came after the victim gave a disturbing account of his abuse
Her shared accounts of his abuse with others – including his family – long before approaching police. A catalogue of photos showed the unusually close relationship between teacher and pupil.
When the jury of six men and six women returned their unanimous verdicts after only three hours, Franklin’s eyes widened as the verdict on each count was read out by the forewoman.
She mouthed something to a female supporter who was in tears in the well of the court, but otherwise showed little emotion.
When the Judge, Mr Justice Choudhry told Franklin – who took a job with the RSPB after leaving teaching – that she would be remanded in custody, her barrister Ms Aisling Byrnes, applied for bail.
In response the judge said: ‘Offences of this nature mean that there is a high possibility of a custodial sentence, so what is the good reason you are presenting to me that she should be granted bail?’
Ms Byrnes said her client, who had arrived in court with a suitcase, wanted to ‘put her affairs in order’, but the judge remanded her in custody nevertheless.
In a video-recorded interview played to the jury, the former pupil described Franklin as a charismatic and energetic teacher who quickly became an important figure in his life.
‘Ms Franklin was very gregarious, high energy, much younger,’ he said. ‘We got on very well and I remember developing a strong friendship. [She] presented like a mate.’
He recalled that she discussed matters far beyond what would normally be expected between a teacher and a young child.
‘[There was] a lot of whispering, inside jokes, a lot of learning from her as you would from an older friend. She spoke about drugs, cigarettes, sex. Very adult things I could not get outside of that. I was the perfect candidate. I was interested to know those types of things.’
According to the victim, Franklin became increasingly embedded in his family life. He described her as ‘ever present’ in their large detached suburban home and said she spent so much time there that he could still remember her telephone number decades later.
Franklin was found to have had sex with the pre-teen boy on numerous occasions, including after blindfolding him and strapping him to the bed
The prosecution argued that this growing familiarity formed part of a deliberate grooming process through which boundaries between teacher and pupil were eroded.
The former pupil told jurors that a significant turning point came after he won a bet against Franklin at school. He said he suggested what he described as ‘something childish’ as his prize but was surprised by her response.
‘She said “I’m very surprised that’s what you want”,’ he recalled.
When he asked what she meant, he said she replied: ‘Because I would have thought you wanted to see me without my clothes on.’
The complainant described feeling shocked by the remark.
He said the first physical incident followed soon afterwards in a den created by his older brother in the family garage. Franklin, he recalled, was wearing a summer dress and a bra.
‘She said “Do you want to touch me?”, so it began immediately. She kissed me on the lips and we started to touch.’
The prosecution said that this episode formed the basis of the first count on the indictment and marked the beginning of years of sexual contact.
As the relationship developed, the complainant said Franklin increasingly directed and controlled the encounters.
‘There was a ton of manipulation obviously, but at the time it did not present like that,’ he told police. ‘At the time it was like: “I am in a relationship. I’m your girlfriend. We have to be cautious.”‘
The significance of that evidence for the prosecution was that it illustrated the imbalance of power between an adult teacher and a child. The complainant explained that he did not recognise the situation as abuse at the time because he believed he was involved in a genuine relationship.
She arrived to each court session wearing dark glasses and a headscarf, so as to obscure her appearance
He described Franklin teaching him sexual acts and instructing him how to touch her.
‘I remember her clothes were off and she was teaching me how to touch a woman.’
He added: ‘I remember her just telling me what to do and I would just do it.’
One memory that remained vivid involved Franklin mentioning her husband Angelo, a security firm boss, during an encounter.
‘I remember her distinctly calling out her husband’s name, Angelo. It took me by surprise. I never saw their relationship. I thought I had the relationship. I remember thinking I had a competitor.’
The remark demonstrated how completely the child had been manipulated by an adult authority figure.
Jurors heard that the abuse escalated from touching to oral sex and eventually to sexual intercourse.
He described ‘countless’ encounters over several years.
Asked in the interview about one incident that remained particularly clear in his memory, he broke down.
Through tears, he recalled an occasion at Franklin’s home when she blindfolded him and tied him to a bed.
‘She asked me to come on the bed. I think it was her marital bed. I remember her tying me. Tying my arms down.
‘She had a feather. Some kind of feathery gloves and fur. She tickled me. I remember being strapped down to the bed and blindfolded.’
He said he trusted her and had little understanding of what was taking place.
‘I guess I had no clue as to what was happening. I went with it and trusted her.’
The complainant said the incident troubled him later in life as he began to understand its significance.
‘At the time, I don’t think I was terrified. I wasn’t. I don’t remember being scared. But it began to bother me when I was around 14.’
Recalling the episode in greater detail, he said: ‘I was tied to the posts, blindfolded and she was tickling me naked and I remember her being surprised I didn’t enjoy it. Her kind of quizzing me why I didn’t enjoy it, what I didn’t like.
‘I was there for some hours.’
He then described what prosecutors said was the first incident of sexual intercourse.
‘I remember us coming back to it later and having sex on her bed.’
Prosecutor Gavin Pottinger told jurors: ‘She blindfolded him and tied him to a bed and he was tickled. After she had sex with him.’
The court heard that sexual intercourse occurred repeatedly.
‘He said it happened “dozens of times”, whenever they were alone and they had an opportunity, they would carry out these acts,’ Mr Pottinger said.
Mother-of-one Franklin sometimes touched the boy in changing rooms when she took him swimming and occasionally engaged in sexual contact with him on school premises, although such incidents were said to be rare and conducted ‘very, very cautious[ly,]’ according to the victim.
A strong feature of the historical case was the victim had spoken about the abuse long before reporting it to police.
He told his father before his 13th birthday. According to the prosecution, the father decided not to contact police at the time for the sake of his son.
Mr Pottinger said the complainant’s father opted to cut off all contact rather than report Franklin to police at the time to avoid ‘causing a scene’ at his son’s bar mitzvah.
Jurors also heard he later revealed the abuse to a doctor and a girlfriend in the early 2000s.
Those earlier disclosures strengthened the reliability of his account because they occurred many years before any police investigation.
Mr Pottinger said the complainant finally decided to approach police in March 2024 after learning that Franklin was still teaching.
‘He felt it was important to tell the police what had happened,’ the prosecutor said.
The jury also heard evidence that family members had observed an unusually close relationship between teacher and pupil.
The victim’s brother remembered Franklin discussing sexual matters with him, while his sister recalled seeing the pair together in bed at the family home.
The sister recalled: ‘She was in bed under the covers reading a book to him.
‘She was in the house often. She became a family friend. She came on Saturday afternoons. I saw her quite a lot.’
Asked if she knew that Franklin was tutoring her brother she said: ‘As far as I am concerned that is what she was doing. That is what she was supposed to be there for.’
Photographs shown to the jury showed levels of physical familiarity that were striking. They included images of Franklin with her hand over the complainant’s mouth, sitting on his bed, placing her arm around him and holding hands with him on a coach during a school trip.
Mr Pottinger told jurors that the relationship eventually ended when the complainant moved to another school.
Franklin exploited her position of authority, gradually blurred professional boundaries, isolated the boy emotionally and ultimately subjected him to repeated sexual acts which he was far too young to understand, let alone consent to.
Franklin will be sentenced on October 1.
After the verdict, Hertfordshire Police Det Constable Liz McGrath, who led the investigation, said: ‘Firstly, I wish to commend the bravery shown by the victim in reporting the allegations to the police and for the strength shown during the trial.
‘This case demonstrates that however long ago a crime happened, we are committed to getting justice for victims. Franklin abused her position of trust and I welcome the jury’s guilty verdicts.
‘We now await sentencing in October.’
A statement by the force added: ‘Police received a report in March 2024 and charged Franklin, who worked as a teacher and home tutor, the same month. She was suspended by her school once they were made aware of the allegations.
‘She was charged under the Indecency with Children Act 1960, which was the law in place at the time of the offences. This was later replaced by the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
‘Franklin had sex with the boy on multiple occasions and would often appear flirtatious in front of others, jurors were told.
‘Becoming a victim of sexual assault is never your fault. If you’ve been a victim, no matter how long ago the offence occurred, please report it.
‘We have specialist officers on hand to provide advice and support throughout an investigation. The constabulary also has a number of officers who are specially trained to provide support to members of the LGBT+ community.
‘Anyone in Hertfordshire who has experienced sexual abuse or sexual violence can contact the Herts Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) for practical and emotional support. To contact Herts SARC, call 0330 223 0099 or visit Herts SARC.’
