Saw this today, shocking - 4 years isnt long enough!!!



A BRITISH martial arts champion was today beginning a four-year jail sentence for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.

Liverpool crown court was told Tae Kwon Do instructor David Thompson, 39, molested the teenager in her bedroom after giving her a lift home from a coaching session.

Months later the pair were alone together at the gym when they performed a sex act together.

The father-of-four from Kensington admitted sexual activity with the girl he had been training for about two years.

But the court heard that his victim admitted she had consented, saying: “It was exciting. I wanted it to happen.”

Jailing him, the judge told Thompson that the victim’s parents had entrusted their daughter’s care and safety with him.

PeteMills wrote:


A BRITISH martial arts champion was today beginning a four-year jail sentence for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.

Liverpool crown court was told Tae Kwon Do instructor David Thompson, 39, molested the teenager in her bedroom after giving her a lift home from a coaching session.

Months later the pair were alone together at the gym when they performed a sex act together.

The father-of-four from Kensington admitted sexual activity with the girl he had been training for about two years.

But the court heard that his victim admitted she had consented, saying: “It was exciting. I wanted it to happen.”

Jailing him, the judge told Thompson that the victim’s parents had entrusted their daughter’s care and safety with him.

While Paedophiles can come from any walk of life, it's particularly disturbing when we find one amongst our midst.

This is no Martial Artist, he's a disgrace.

Reminds me of an embarassing story for the Crudelli competition.

mule wrote:
PeteMills wrote:
Saw this today, shocking - 4 years isnt long enough!!!



While Paedophiles can come from any walk of life, it's particularly disturbing when we find one amongst our midst.

This is no Martial Artist, he's a disgrace.

Reminds me of an embarassing story for the Crudelli competition.

Quite true, he is a danger and should be put out of harms way for a lot longer.

A couple of years ago, though, there was a campaign to lower the age on consent to 14. Had that been successful would he even have been prosecuted?

Jeltz wrote:
mule wrote:
PeteMills wrote:
Saw this today, shocking - 4 years isnt long enough!!!



While Paedophiles can come from any walk of life, it's particularly disturbing when we find one amongst our midst.

This is no Martial Artist, he's a disgrace.

Reminds me of an embarassing story for the Crudelli competition.

Quite true, he is a danger and should be put out of harms way for a lot longer.

A couple of years ago, though, there was a campaign to lower the age on consent to 14. Had that been successful would he even have been prosecuted?

In another age, in another country, he'd be executed!

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

In another age in this country they could have been married

I appreciate this sort of thing happens in all walks of life, but I feel that when it does happen in the world of martial arts it more often than not shows the cult-like side of martial arts training. Martial arts instructors have used their influence as positions of authority - sometimes absolute authority - to have sexual relations with their students. Many instructors legitimately begin relationships with their students, relationships that become longterm partnerships and there is nothing wrong with this, but still many others can't resist using their students as if they were starstruck groupies. This particularly sinister when practiced on the young.

In Geoff Thompson's "Dead or Alive" book there is an incident relating to a sexual offender who taught a self-defence class. Back when I was running my martial arts act, one of the dancers revealed to me that her old Judo coach was done for child abuse. Just recently I heard of a case concerning an organized sex abuse ring in the UK that involved some high ranking traditional martial artists - I don't have exact details on this and am currently researching it for my book, but it was a big scandal at the time apparently.

Generally I think we are in a much better situation these days than we used to be.

In the mid 1980's as a 15 year old that had outgrown the Judo Club at my school I went for about 6 months to the class at the local sports centre.

I was regularly paired with a bloke in his 20's, who's reason for being there was clearly to be pinned down by other young men. He would fall over so as not to be thrown and lie back to be put in a hold in groundwork. The black belts thought it was really funny, but I felt very uncomfortable and eventually stopped going.

However, I did also get rather good at chokes and locks which I chose to go for most of the time rather than holds.

These days I like to think that the requirement for child protection would prevent it from happening!

This sort of thing is an atrocity regardless of profession. Students need to be able to trust their teachers and feel safe. I'd like 5 minutes alone with this guy in a locked room.

We had a situation similar to this occur in our federation about a year ago. The instructor in question got involved with a jr. instructor who was a student of mine. They developed a clandestine relationship, but were eventually discovered. Although she was the legal age of consent (17 in our area) we deemed it unethical. After all, she was a jr in high school and this guy is twice her age. We drummed him out, but unfortunately she chose to follow him. Now they run a school together, and I lost a student that was like a daughter to me

We had a situation similar to this occur in our federation about a year ago. The instructor in question got involved with a jr. instructor who was a student of mine. They developed a clandestine relationship, but were eventually discovered. Although she was the legal age of consent (17 in our area) we deemed it unethical. After all, she was a jr in high school and this guy is twice her age. We drummed him out, but unfortunately she chose to follow him. Now they run a school together, and I lost a student that was like a daughter to me


I think you guys made the right decision here Dan. You sent a message to all of your students and parents of the children that their instructors not only keep an eye on whats going on in and out of the class but also that you will not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

To be honest im quite a liberal person and I do have friend who is younger then me (22) and she is dating a guy in his fifties. But in positions of trust for the sake of reputation you cannot tolerate it.

believe me Pete, i don't make it a point of telling people what they can and can't do in their personal lives (well, not much lol). it just isn't something that should happen between an adult authority figure and a minor. i know that we made the right decision, and have never questioned it. it is just sad that she left with him. that is the only part of all this that really bothers me. we all make our own choices though, i guess.

I don't agree with pedo's... Just to make that point clear before I say my next opinion...

I find it strange that though these ages are quite different, younger girls 14-15-16-17 are obviously turning into young women, now the legal age is 16 for sexual activity in the UK. The thing is these young girls are now giving consent for this to happen, and although the under 16 is against the law, the young people are choosing it.

Now the question is, because the adult should know better, is the adult manipulating the young person? Or does this young person generally have feelings that he/she decides to act upon, in which case these feelings are natural and if they are feeling such things, is it completely right to deny them the right to act upon it??
I am mainly talking about 16-17 yr olds there.

Don't get me wrong here people I am not condoning any of this behaviour, I am merely debating that natural feelings occur and natrually these young people are feeling things and don't quite understand them. We all had girlfriends/boyfriends at school or whatever and if 2 young people i.e. two 15 year olds become sexually active together it's looked upon differently.

So are we as society comdemning young people to feel these things at all until the legal age? Or are we comdemning the age difference between people??

There are some 60 year olds with 18 yr old partners out there and it is seen as slutty or wrong but not illegal and the age gap is so much bigger.

What messages are we sending out here?

Again I am not debating the law or condoning this sexual activity between adult and young teenager, only the message that society gives against the messages nature gives...

I hope I don't come across in the wrong manner I know its a delicate subject!

In the animal world males are programmed to want to mate with females once they are able to have young, although this programming may still be present in humans I choose to call it dirty old man syndrome!

I do understand what you are getting at but I don't think that it is acceptable for the "adult" to let it happen, they are the ones that should know better and they should not give in to temptation.

What if the relationship is meant to be though? Well if "feelings" continue to bubble away for a few years to the point where they are both old enough to act with the head and heart not just the groin I can't see that is a problem, but it still may be creepy.