Dundee art teacher jailed for indecent and sexual assaults on pupils

A Dundee teacher who carried out a string of indecent and sexual assaults on his former pupils has been jailed for eight months.

James Skelton Smith's conduct was labelled "abhorrent" by a veteran sheriff.

Smith, a part-time teacher of expressive arts at a leading Scottish state school, would regularly drop his pencil in order to crawl under second- and third-year girls' desks, and bombarded one older pupil with gifts and attention until she finally dropped out to avoid him.

On her last day at school, when she was still 17, he followed her into the street and gave her a "quite sexual" French kiss, then when she returned to hand in work for her final exams he kissed her again and groped her breast in an empty classroom.

Smith, 57, was told by Sheriff John Rafferty: "These assaults were carried out when you were in a position of authority and trust.

"You contrived situations to get down on the floor of the classroom and in some instances crawl under the desks and look up the skirts of schoolgirls.

"One of the pupils had mental health issues.

"She suffered from anxiety and this was known to you. You sought her out, befriended her, contacted her on social media, and gave her gifts before indecently assaulting her."

Dundee Sheriff Court heard Smith touched one 14-year-old pupil's inside thigh, just inches below her groin, left a 15-year-old pupil feeling "really violated" after touching her upper thigh with the palm of his hand, and went into an arts cupboard with another teenage pupil and put his hands on her bottom to push her up onto a stool to get painting items from a high shelf.

Pupils described him as "creepy".

He also targeted female pupils after they had left school, inviting one, by then a 22-year-old woman, back home to look at his paintings and then grabbing her breasts leaving her so scared she decided to "play dead" rather than return his attentions or say no.

After a three-day summary trial last month, Smith, of Dundee, was found guilty of indecent assault, sexual assault, and breach of the peace. The offences took place over an 11-year period between 2008 and 2019.

Sentence had been deferred until today for reports.

Smith, a Scottish surrealist artist whose work has even sold at Christie's, had denied all the charges, claiming his victim's stories were "ridiculous".

Sheriff Rafferty rejected a defence submission that he could be spared jail.

The snowy-haired teacher showed no emotion as Sheriff Rafferty told him his victims had "shown courage" in coming forward "out of a selfless sense of public duty".

He added that having gone to trial, Smith had forfeited any right to any reduction in his sentence, despite being a first offender.

He said: "In my experience, which is considerable, it is not uncommon that persons who come before these courts having committed sexual offences at summary level are often not otherwise inclined to break the law.

"They may chose to offend as you have done for your own abhorrent purposes if they believe they may escape detection and punishment.

"It's the clear duty of the courts to protect the young and vulnerable and a custodial sentence is required to afford that protection.

"Each of your victims -- some of whom are still schoolchildren -- were required to give evidence and each faced allegations that they were lying.

"You have shown no or little remorse and little understanding of the impact on your victims.

"It has to be hoped that they may now gain some closure."

In addition to the eight month jail term, he ordered that Smith, who has now lost his job as a teacher, should be placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

The former pupil whom Smith gave a "French kiss" the day she left school said it had taken seven years for her to make an initial approach to police. Now 28, she said she had felt "really ashamed" and "tried to bury the excruciating details" of what Smith -- whom she called a "guardian figure" -- had done to her.

The former pupil who Smith targeted after missing her bus described how, because she had been "really into art", she had enjoyed being invited back to his "old period house" with an easel in the "long leafy garden".

But he then attacked her, getting into bed beside her, pushing his crotch into her back and gripping her breasts "firmly".

She said: "I was very, very afraid."

The court heard that Smith, a teacher for 25 years at the 1200-pupil school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, would never he allowed to teach again.

On his website, Smith describes his own art as "slightly odd", inspired by sleep, dreams and nightmares.