A teacher who allegedly became pregnant after having sex with a schoolboy in a plane toilet contacted him 339 times over eight months, a court heard today.
Science teacher Eleanor Wilson and her 16-year-old pupil exchanged 295 texts, 23 calls, 13 voicemails and eight multi-media messages between August 2015 and March 2016.
The content could not be recovered by police and the boy claims Wilson told him to delete the messages.
Wilson, 29, is on trial at Bristol Crown Court accused of luring the boy into a plane cubicle on a BA flight home from a school trip in Africa in August 2015 and later telling him she was pregnant with his child.
Earlier, the court heard evidence from Wilson’s ex-boyfriend Andrew Hall.
He said he was unlikely to be the father of her terminated child because they only slept together once every six months.
Mr Hall told her trial he couldn’t be the father because their sex life was so bad and broke up with Ms Wilson a year after the alleged illicit encounter when he read about it online.
He said: ‘In the last 18 months of our relationship we very rarely had intercourse and we never had unprotected intercourse.
‘It would be incredibly unlikely for her to get pregnant – we were having sex every six months.
‘Our sex life couldn’t have got worse. I uncovered she was having an unacceptable relationship with somebody else
‘Ellie was on the contraceptive pill for the majority of our relationship. As far as I am aware she was never on any form of contraception other than pill.
‘When she returned from Africa there was not much sexual activity.
‘It is incredibly unlikely that she could have got pregnant – we used condoms and I never had any concern.’
Mr Hall said police informed him his ex-partner had become pregnant in an interview in December 2017 – almost two years later.
He recalled the day in which Wilson was collected from the abortion clinic by a colleague – but said she told him she suffered vaginal bleeding and had to go to hospital to remove a ‘blockage’.
The jury heard how Wilson was taken to the clinic by her teaching assistant who dropped her off at home.
Mr Hall described Wilson being dropped off by a colleague as ‘not the normal arrangement’ on day three of the trial.
Mr Hall also described overhearing Wilson having a drunken conversation at home in the downstairs living room after he had gone to bed.
He listened at the door and heard Wilson say ‘I knew you wouldn’t tell anybody; I knew I could trust you’ – but she denied being on the phone when he confronted her minutes later, the jury heard.
Mr Hall told the court: ‘The two phrases jumped out at me.
‘They were suspicious – I opened the door and Ellie went to hang up the phone immediately, she was mid-conversation when I went into the room.
‘I asked her who she was speaking to and she denied she was on the phone which made me more suspicious – she was very defensive; I was calm, bemused.
‘I continued to challenge her and she eventually told me she had been on the phone to her brother which didn’t make sense – I told her I didn’t believe her.
‘She then drunkenly left the house. It was bizarre.’
Mr Hall said he was aware Wilson had been dismissed for gross misconduct – but said he’d been told it was because ‘she didn’t report students getting drunk’ on a school trip.
He did not know about the allegations of sex on the aeroplane until he read an online news report.
He said: ‘I heard the allegations and was upset – I sent her message because I was concerned for her welfare.
‘She said it had all been blown up by the media – and admitted to some of the elements of The National College for Teaching and Leadership report about her dismissal.
‘The report showed she had been dishonest to me on more than one occasion.’
But Anna Midgley, defending, challenged Mr Hall’s account of the incident in which he heard Wilson talking on the phone – accusing him of being ‘jealous’ and ‘physically aggressive’ towards the defendant.
Ms Midgley said: ‘You were physically wrestling to make her show you the mobile phone.
‘Your account is that she ran away because she was drunk – you were being physically aggressive and she had just been hurt during the struggle.
‘At the end of your relationship she left you and not the other way around.’
Ms Midgley claimed Mr Hall threatened to push Wilson down a flight of stairs if she became pregnant and that he made reference to a ‘coat hanger’. He denied this.
Wilson, of Dursley, Gloucestershire, denies four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust between August and September 2015.
She was a respected teacher and head of Key Stage Four at a secondary school in Bristol which cannot be named for legal reasons.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Wilson said she ‘clutched onto’ the boy because she was lonely and had no friends, the court head.
She also said she was ‘idiot’ for giving the boy her mobile phone number in a police interview read to the court.
Wilson described being shown his bedroom after giving him a lift home from Nando’s – and calling him while on holiday with her ex-boyfriend Andrew Hall in Italy.
She told police the pair ‘sat down in a field’ at Tintern Abbey – but said they didn’t kiss and that ‘he was a student and I felt like I was helping him’.
The teacher said: ‘I found the boy needed looking after. I thought he was treating me like a sister
‘It probably wasn’t flirting – it was only flirty over text. It was more flirty over text.
‘In Africa I don’t think there was anything where I would say that was really flirty.
‘I don’t really have a lot of friends – I clutched onto boy being a friend because I didn’t have anyone else to talk to.
‘[After Nando’s back at his house] I went to his bedroom – he showed me it but i didn’t go in there.
‘He waited in there and I went to the loo. I was in his house for 20 minutes to half an hour.
‘[I gave him my number] because i’m an idiot. I didn’t think he would really text me or anything.
‘He showed me around his house and he was like ‘I don’t know what i’m going to be able to do – can i have your number?’ and I said ‘OK here it is’ which is a misjudgement on my part.
‘When I went holiday he was like I’m not going to talk to you.
‘I was in Florence like at the start of the holiday and I called him and we were just walking back because it was really busy on the side streets and I got lost.
‘I thought of ringing the boy because i’d been talking to him a lot – I was drunk and trying to find my way back.
‘I ended up walking to a park and I was like sorry I’m really drunk so i was like rambling on. I got back to the hotel and said i got lost on the way back and he was like you muppet.
‘We went to Tintern Abbey because I wanted to meet him somewhere public.
‘I said ‘Let’s just split’ and he said ‘No I want to treat you’ then we sat down in a field and I took him home. Sometimes I would phone him.
‘I said I can’t be talking to you anymore it’s not appropriate.
‘I was obviously scared of losing my job because I knew the times I had met him I should not have done.’
Ms Midgley, defending, on Tuesday claimed the schoolboy’s story was ‘fabricated’ and that he was ‘infatuated’ with the blonde teacher, who denies all charges.
The trial heard an account of how their relationship evolved after the flight.
Wilson allegedly kissed the boy in his bedroom after giving him a lift home from a post-holiday school meal at Nando’s, attended by other teachers and pupils.
They allegedly met again when Wilson took the boy on a date to Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, where they spent time ‘rolling around on the grass’ and ‘kissing’.
The fourth charge relates to another date in which they allegedly kissed at Ashton Court, near Bristol.
Statements from the boy’s ex-girlfriend, his friend and a teacher at the school were read to the court.
The teacher said Wilson ‘didn’t have much common sense’ and ‘could be silly’.
She said the boy ‘began to refer to Ellie by her first name’ and that she ‘found this odd’ and reprimanded him.
The teacher added: ‘Ellie definitely had her favourite students.’
The boy’s friend said he had been shown text message conversations between he and Wilson.
He said in the statement: ‘He showed me texts on his phone which were about them missing each other and how they can’t wait to see each other again.’
The boy’s ex-girlfriend, who he is said to have broken up with on advice from Wilson, said his behaviour was ‘odd’ after he returned from the Africa trip.
She said he revealed all the details of their sexual encounter on the return flight – and that he and Wilson had started a relationship together.
