agreed

after my recent experiences i can honestly say i'm not surprised that someone in martial arts gets off on the power they can have over a student of any age and that some instructors feel more secure messing with kids than adults. what does surprise me is that someone else always knows and turns a blind eye. to think you can get away with this means someone has let you...child protection policies do not allow teachers to give students a lift home and even in an emergency not to do this without another adult. the parents were in the wrong to allow this to happen, but again a person i know has done this i wouldn't allow him on his own with anyone.

The fact is, a 14 year old girl is a 14 year old girl and a male martial arts instructor who is an adult engaging in illegal sexual activity with her is wrong.

He is a teacher, she is far too young and in my experience as a school teacher, most girls this age are vulnerable. Some of them may look like a woman but they are not, no matter how articulate they are.

That individual was in a position of trust and he abused it. He was caught and sent to prison. End of.

tomprice2k wrote:
mule wrote:
In another age, in another country, he'd be executed!

In another age in this country they could have been married

In this day and age in Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany (if married), Hungary, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, and Serbia the "age of consent" is 14. In Spain it's 13. In many places throughout Europe and even a few states in America what he did would've been totally legal.

I do believe though that in this country under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 that the pupil would've had to have been 18, not 16, for any kind of relationship to take place. The same law would probably apply to this instructor as would to a teacher in a school, where the duty of care that applies from teacher to pupil means both have to be legally adults, not just above the AOC.

Personally though, whatever the legal technicalities, I find the thought quite nauseating, no matter how quickly people grow up these days.