A Fife teacher has been accused of buying a cheap burner phone so he could arrange sexual liaisons with a pupil.
The girl claims chemistry teacher David Bryant had sex with her in the biology lab at Levenmouth Academy, as well as in a car and at a hotel.
And she says they met once or twice a week in secluded areas, including Halbeath Park and Ride and Balbirnie Park in Markinch.
The hook-ups were allegedly organised via texts sent on the phone using the code name Delilah – based on the hit 2006 song by Plain White T’s about a long-distance relationship.
The girl, known only as Pupil A, says she did not have sexual intercourse with Bryant – who no longer works at the school – until she was 18.
However, she told a hearing of the General Teaching Council (GTC) for Scotland the pair regularly kissed, touched and engaged in oral sex before then.
Bryant did not attend Monday’s hearing into his conduct.
However, the girl said their relationship lasted almost two years until she asked him to choose between her and his wife, with the teacher picking his wife.
Pupil A, who has since left school, told the panel: “I reported it as it felt unfair.
“I had nothing and he kept his job and his wife.”
Pair kissed in school every day
Giving evidence under oath, the girl said she went to Bryant’s classroom to work almost every lunchtime.
She found him easy to talk to and began confiding in him.
She said: “I was about 16 when I first had him as a teacher.
“About seven months to a year afterwards, about November 2017, he made a comment about wanting to kiss me.
“I told him to go for it and he did. It sort of went from there.”
She said they “pretty much kissed every day” in a science room and claimed Bryant began picking her up in his car after school.
Relationship became sexual
Girl A said the relationship became more sexual and added: “There was a lot more touching, a lot more oral sex, foreplay, leading up to when we actually slept together.
“I had never had a relationship like that before. It was all very new to me.”
She said at that point the sexual activity took place in a car near Windygates, secluded garages in her hometown and in a car park next to East Fife’s Bayview football stadium.
The girl claimed the pair later had sexual intercourse in the Glenrothes Travelodge, a biology lab at Levenmouth Academy, Halbeath Park and Ride and a car park at Balbirnie park.
The hearing was told Bryant also had keys to a house he was helping to renovate and the couple sometimes went there.
Bryant was ‘terrified of being found out’
She said Bryant bought a pay-as-you-go phone for himself and gave her the number.
“I was referred to as Delilah as in the Plain White T’s song Hey There Delilah,” Girl A said.
“He was terrified of being found out. He wanted to ensure my mum wasn’t reading messages and he wanted to ensure I knew I was speaking to him and not his wife.”
She said the relationship continued after she left school and started college before ending in July 2019.
At that point, she claimed, she took the burner phone and threw it in the sea at Leven beach.
Girl reported affair to former teacher
Levenmouth Academy chemistry teacher Kerryanne McMahon told the hearing Pupil A messaged her out of the blue saying she needed to speak to her.
The girl had already left school by this point.
The former pupil told Miss McMahon about the alleged affair and she reported it to the headteacher, who called a child protection officer.
“I was called out of class the following day to speak to the police,” she said.
The teacher added: “I was shocked at what she said and kept asking her to recant it but she was so specific.
“To be honest, I didn’t want to believe it.”
Ms McMahon said Pupil A directed her to a card and picture she had made and left on Bryant’s desk, adding: “She had signed it Delilah.”
Full list of allegations against Fife teacher
The allegations against Dr Iain Bryant, known as David, are as follows.
Between October 2017 and June 2019 at Levenmouth Academy it is alleged Dr Bryant entered into a relationship with Pupil A, then a pupil at the school, and did:
- Take Pupil A away from a window and hug her as she was feeling upset
- Say he was thinking about kissing Pupil A the following day
- Kiss Pupil A – who at the time was still at school and under the age of 18
- Kiss and touch Pupil A in the technician’s lab
- Give Pupil A a mobile phone, a few months later, and contact her using a code word “Delilah”
- Meet with Pupil A in a Travelodge and/or other property and engage in sexual activity once she was over 18.
The fitness to teach conduct hearing is due to last all this week.
If any allegations are found to be proven, it will then be up to the GTC whether to impose any sanctions – which could include being banned from the profession.
GTCS solicitor Lauren Doherty said Dr Bryant was notified to attend the hearing on March 27 but did not respond.
The last substantive communication from him came via an email from his union representative last June, in which he said he wished to be removed from the teaching register.
He declined to comment on the allegations when approached by a Courier reporter.
Fife Council confirmed the teacher is no longer employed by the local authority.
