A highly esteemed teacher has been struck off after admitting to a sexual relationship with a student in the 1970s.
The woman, described as "at the forefront of [her] relevant field of education", accepted she had engaged in a sexual relationship with her pupil - then aged between 15 and 18 - over a number of years while she was his teacher in the late 1970s.
Both the man and the teacher were granted name suppression in a decision released by the Education Council yesterday.
The relationship became "more intimate than that of teacher and student" when he was 15, the tribunal noted, with the man claiming they had sexual intercourse before his 16th birthday. This was disputed by the woman, who said intercourse occurred only after he turned 16.
In April last year the man approached police to lay a complaint against his former teacher, but after looking into the matter police decided they could not proceed with a prosecution. The investigating officer concluded that, according to the laws of the time, no criminal offence had occurred.