Oklahoma teacher loses $1m lawsuit after having sex with schoolboy

An American court has ruled that a school teacher must pay $1m (£770,000) after having sex with a 15-year-old student, following a notorious child sex scandal.

US District Judge Robin Cauthron awarded the judgement against former English teacher Jennifer Caswell over her sexual relationship with a teenage boy at Hollis Middle School, Oklahoma.

The court said the award for the boy, who cannot be named, was for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Cauthron added: "[The boy] reports feelings of depression, isolation, and self-blame for the events that transpired," reported The Oklahoman.

"He experienced humiliation when members of his community publicly chastised him and when strangers recognised him and questioned him about the scandal."

Jennifer Caswell, 31, was sentenced to ten years in jail in June 2015 after pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of enticing a child and one count of forcible sodomy, in a case that hit the headlines the year before.

Bob Wyatt, an attorney for the boy, said: "We are pleased that the judge considered the outrageous behaviour of the teacher and are pleased with the fact that the judge sent a message to teachers and schools across the state of Oklahoma that sexual abuse of a child by a teacher will not be condoned."

Cauthron said that the boy went from being a well-liked star athlete at his school to the subject of ridicule after the scandal broke. The boy now goes to school in a different town, and did not play sports last year.

The Hollis public school system agreed to pay $125,000 to the boy in July to settle claims that the school participated in covering up the sexual abuse.

Dr Phil interview

David Cummins, an attorney for Caswell said his client will be in prison for several years and has no money to pay the boy.

"The reality is that the money is probably uncollectable," Wyatt admitted.

Caswell first had sex with the boy, in April 2014, just six weeks after qualifying as a teacher.

"I was walking around the classroom straightening up the desks and he came and I guess it was standing up," Caswell told the Dr Phil TV talk show in May 2015.

The 29-year-old admitted that she did not tell the student to stop what he was doing.

During the trial the court heard that Caswell also had sex with the boy in her car, her home and the home of the boy's father's, who is a pastor.

Caswell claimed her failing marriage with her now ex-husband contributed to the unlawful relationship.

She said: "I felt very unwanted by my husband. I was with him for ten years and I was never complimented. We never held hands or were physical."

She told Dr Phil: "He was very flirty and I should have put a stop to it and I didn't. I wasn't used to the attention."

But Caswell said: "I'm not a predator. I'm not a rapist."

However, the former teacher admitted that she followed the young boy 650 miles to Mississippi on his family vacation in June 2014 to have sex with him again.