A Scots teacher who was caught romping with a male pupil in her car has complained about the ‘stigma’ surrounding her conviction.
Eppie Sprung Dawson was struck off the register after she admitted having sex with a 17-year-old that she met while teaching English at St Joseph’s College in Dumfries.
After pleading guilty to a breach of trust over the affair, she was added to the sex offenders register with a six-month community payback order.
On Thursday, October 3, the mother-of-two, called BBC Radio One phone-in to complain about the ‘stigma’ she faces on a daily basis.
As she addressed listeners, the shamed former teacher said: “I have a conviction for a sexual offence. I was a teacher and I had an affair with a 17-year-old pupil.
“So I do have experience of, kind of, living with the challenges that a person can face as a result of having a criminal record.
“I never experienced a custodial sentence, but I certainly did experience stigma.
“I mean, I had an exceptionally large amount of press coverage, media coverage, for many, many years following my conviction.
“And I think I would say that was the most difficult thing I experienced.
“But I mean, of course, as with people with a conviction for a sexual offence particularly, face the highest degree of stigma.
“And so things like employment, even things like not being invited to my daughter’s friends’ birthday parties.”
Officers spotted the married teacher – who was 26 at the time – parked in the layby with one of her pupils in December 2012, after noticing condensations on the car windows.
She split from her husband of two years after the incident and the pupil moved in with her. Their relationship came to an end in 2015.
She found it difficult to move on with her life, and said media coverage of the case meant potential employers were “concerned I bring with me a reputational risk”.
She added: “Everybody knew who I was.”
Sprung said a bar owner “took a punt on me” after her conviction.
She was later offered a job at a charity. She has since set up Next Chapter Scotland, a lottery-backed charity that helps reformed criminals find work.
Now remarried, she said she set the charity up to show her kids she won’t hide her past.
She said: “I’m aware they are going to have to face the stigma of my offence and it would be better for them to have a mum who is using that experience for good.”
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