Adam Gutteridge jailed for sexually abusing pupils
A former teacher, who went on to star in a national TV advert, has been jailed for four years for sexually abusing three of his teenage pupils.
Adam Gutteridge appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court earlier after pleading guilty to 10 sex charges at a previous hearing.
He was teaching at a school in Dorset when he abused the girls.
The 38-year-old later moved to London and starred in an advert for recruitment agency Reed.co.uk.
Sentencing Gutteridge, Judge Peter Johnson said: "You betrayed the trust of your colleagues, parents and most of all, the three girls you abused.
"What was going on was disgraceful, damaging conduct on your behalf."
'Helping with studies'
Gutteridge worked at the school from September 2002 to August 2007.
He groomed two of the girls using an internal computer messaging system under the pretence that he was helping them with studying.
Simon Jones, prosecuting, said the messages quickly turned sexual and Gutteridge's relationship with one girl progressed from kissing and cuddling to sexual intercourse and oral sex.
Mr Jones said: "She told police how she hated doing it and it made her feel sick, but she saw the defendant as her boyfriend."
He got another girl to send him pictures of herself in her underwear and invited her around to his house to watch films.
"She thought she was in love with the defendant and would tell him this," Mr Jones said.
During a school trip to Plymouth, in Devon, Gutteridge abused another girl in her room.
'A darker place'
In victim impact statements read to the court, the girls said they felt their teenage years had been taken from them, with one saying her "world seems a darker place" now.
Gutteridge pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a child, two of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child being a person in a position of trust.
He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Gutteridge also pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual activity with a child, which the Crown Prosecution Service accepted, saying they would take no further action.
A spokesman for Reed.co.uk said: "This advert is part of an old campaign that ceased broadcasting in March. We have no further connection with Mr Gutteridge."