- Deborah Franklin, a 65-year-old former preparatory school teacher, has been found guilty of eight counts of gross indecency against a boy she privately tutored in Hertfordshire during the 1990s, when he was aged between nine and 12.
- Prosecutors at St Albans Crown Court detailed how Franklin, then in her 30s and married, subjected the boy to "repeated sexual activity," including taking off her clothes, kissing him, and performing various sexual acts.
- Specific allegations included an incident where Franklin tied the boy to her bed, blindfolded him, and tickled him at her home, and another where she took off her clothes in a garage and asked him to touch her.
- Franklin, who denied all charges and claimed she could not remember tutoring the boy, remained emotionless as the verdicts were delivered, despite her defence arguing their relationship was "entirely proper."
- She has been remanded into custody and was informed by Judge Kamran Choudhry that there is a "high possibility" of a custodial sentence when she is sentenced on 1 October.
