Teacher found half naked in layby with pupil, 17, says: ‘I’ve been stigmatised by my sex offence’

An embarrassed teacher who was found half-naked with her teenage student yesterday complained she was being ‘stigmatised’ by her sex offense.

Eppie Sprung Dawson was convicted of having sex with a 17-year-old student after she was found in a car with her victim by patrolling police officers.

The 38-year-old was placed on the sex offenders register for six months and given a six-month community order after admitting sexual activity with a person under the age of 18 while she was his teacher and in a position of trust.

She was spared jail but went on a radio call-in program yesterday to complain about the stigma and press attention her conviction brought.

Speaking on the BBC Radio Scotland show, Sprung Dawson said: ‘I have been convicted of a sexual offence.

‘I was a teacher and had an affair with a 17-year-old student, so I have experience of living with the challenges someone can face as a result of having a criminal record.

‘I have never experienced a custodial sentence, but I have experienced a stigma.

“I mean, I had an extraordinary amount of press attention, media attention, for many, many years after my conviction.

“And I guess I would say it was the hardest thing I’ve been through.

‘But of course I mean that people with a conviction for a sexual offense in particular face the highest degree of stigmatization.

“And so things like work, even things like not being invited to my daughter’s friends’ birthday parties.”

Ms Sprung Dawson says she has experienced ‘the highest level of stigma’ since her conviction

The phone on Mornings with Stephen Jardine discussed the early release of prisoners

Almost 500 prisoners have been released before they were due to go to Scotland as part of the emergency early release scheme.

It was introduced amid severe overcrowding in Scotland’s prisons, with prisoners serving short sentences of less than four years and having 180 days or less to wait before being eligible for release.

Those serving a life sentence, or those in prison for sexual abuse, domestic violence or terror-based crimes, were automatically excluded from the scheme.

Sprung Dawson lost her marriage and job after driving the teenage boy to a remote parking lot in December 2012 after a school Christmas dance and having sex with him.

The pair were discovered by patrolling police officers who became suspicious when they noticed condensation on the car windows and found them in the front seat.

Sprung Dawson, then aged 26, was teaching English at St Joseph’s College in Dumfries and had agreed to give the dyslexic teenager extra lessons.

When she was sentenced at Dumfries Sheriff Court in June the following year, Judge Sherriff George Jamieson told her: ‘You were only there to teach but you were tempted and you committed adultery – your marriage is over and your teaching career is gone.

The former teacher was caught in a parking lot with a teenage student in 2012

Ms Sprung Dawson has since set up a charity to help people with criminal convictions deal with ‘stigma and discrimination’

‘What you are accused of is a breach of trust and I don’t see anything to be gained from a custodial sentence.

“If you had not been this young man’s teacher, there would have been no crime.”

It later emerged that less than two months after being registered in the civil registry, she went to live with the boy in her marital home.

At the time he said they were not in a relationship, and he later moved out.

Sprung Dawson was struck from the education register in December 2013.

She has since set up a charity called Next Chapter Scotland, which is dedicated to ‘helping anyone who has been involved with the criminal justice system to deal with the stigma and discrimination they may face throughout their lives’.

It said its “vision” was of a society that “no longer judges people by their worst choices, but instead sees them as they are now.”

Next Chapter Scotland has won money from the National Lottery Community fund, as well as other organisations.