Teacher who had sex with schoolboy after tying him to bed faces prison

A female teacher who had sex with a schoolboy after blindfolding him and tying him to a bed faces jail after being convicted of child abuse.

A jury found Deborah Franklin, 65, a former teacher at a Hertfordshire preparatory school, guilty of eight counts of gross indecency with a boy under 14 between 1991 and 1995.

In a video interview, the victim, now in his 40s, said he was nine when he joined Franklin's class at the independent school where fees are now £18,000 a year, and she became his private tutor.

Franklin's historical offences were committed when the maximum sentence for each count was only two years in prison. In 1997 the law was changed, increasing the maximum sentence to 10 years, but she will be sentenced under the old tariff.

The case against the career teacher rested on the detailed and emotional testimony of her former pupil who revealed that she groomed and sexually abused him over a period of several years when he was a child in her care.