French Teacher Cleared Of All Schoolboy Sex Charges

A french language schoolteacher, accused of touching and slapping a 14 year-old pupil's bottom, while calling the boy "sexy" and "honey" during Facebook chats has been cleared of sex activity charges.

A Croydon Crown Court jury found teacher Arnaud Barge, 38, not guilty on all counts after hearing evidence from the schoolboy.

Barge answered "no comment" during his first police interview on December 12, 2011, but when questioned a second time on March 23, last year claimed his attention was motivated by the boy being a "underachiever" and a "target student."

It was alleged he repeatedly spanked the teen in a "jokey fashion" in front of classmates and would tuck the boy's school shirt into the front of his trousers.

"He said Mr. Barge made sexually suggestive comments towards him and paid him more attention than others in the class," prosecutor Mr. James Dawes told the court.

"He said for the last couple of years he would touch him on the bottom in a jokey fashion and this touching and these comments made the boy very uncomfortable."

Barge, of St. Paul Street, Islington was acquitted of three counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust between June 19, 2009 and December 2, 2011.

The court heard Barge was a respected teacher at the Orpington secondary school, but was suspended in December, 2011 after the pupil, born in 1996, reported him to another member of staff.

The boy shared Facebook messages Barge sent him during the 2010 summer holiday which read: "Oh darling. I'm loving our little game," and "Night, night. Kiss, kiss."

Other messages included: "How's my favourite little poker?" and "I know you're not that bad sexy."

Mr. Dawes explained: "The staff were alarmed by such messages between a boy of that age and a teacher in his late thirties."

Barge was questioned by the head teacher. "He said he may have touched him, but did not intend the boy to feel uncomfortable and said he had not spanked his bottom."

One of the boy's classmates was also spoken to. "He said Mr. Barge would stand a little closer to the boy and sometimes pull up his trousers and tuck his shirt in, putting his hand down the front of his trousers, not too far, but enough to tuck his shirt in.

"The same classmate said Mr. Barge once approached a group of boy's and asked if they were talking about the complainant's balls," explained Mr. Dawes.

"He also slapped the complainant's bottom ten to fifteen times as if it was a joke to the class."

"He denied that he slapped the boy's bottom in class or tucked in his shirt, but accepted the Facebook comments were a mistake and said he should have used a more formal way to contact a pupil," said Mr. Dawes.

"He said he meant nothing sexual, but it was just the way he is and described himself as a lively person."