A FORMER biology teacher at a Burnley high school regularly had sex with a 14-year-old pupil in the mid-70s, a court heard.

The alleged victim said she had initially been flattered when ‘brash and charismatic’ new tutor Joseph Cheesbrough began singling her out when she attended St Hilda’s RC High School, Burnley Crown Court was told.

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But the victim, now 54, claims that the friendliness quickly turned sexual, as she stayed behind to clean his minibus used for school trips, progressing from kissing and groping to oral sex and later full intercourse.

The victim accused the teacher of plying her with Bacardi and vodka before taking her for sex at his former home in Worsthorne, as well as Crown Point in Burnley and the woods at Hurstwood.

The court was told he is alleged to have taken the victim’s virginity.

Cheesbrough, then in his 20s, is said to have advised the pupil to go on the pill and coached her regarding what to say to doctors as she was still under-age at the time.

The former teacher, then of Duncan Close, Worsthorne, but now of Gable Avenue, Cockermouth, denies nine offences of indecent assault and two charges of buggery.

Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, said the victim, had confided in a friend about what had happened to her when she was younger.

But she only informed the authorities about her alleged ordeal in October 2013.

She told police that she had first met Cheesbrough when she was a third year student at St Hilda’s.

His arrival had sent a buzz around the school, which has since closed, as previously most of the teachers there were nuns.

The teacher, who the girl said was ‘fancied’ by a number of her fellow pupils, had began his association with her by asking about her home life.

She said that she was even invited to his Worsthorne home to see his new baby.

Interviewed on video later, the alleged victim, said: “I knew it was wrong but he made it all very exciting.”

She recalled how Cheesbrough would still refer to her by her surname, like he would in the classroom, even when they were together.

The alleged victim also claimed that the teacher tried to involve her in a threesome with another man but she had refused to have sex with him.

The court heard that the relationship continued until after the former schoolgirl left St Hilda’s.

But the defendant ended the affair, leaving her ‘distraught’.

When Cheesbrough was arrested and interviewed by the police later, he not only denied ever having sex with the girl, but insisted she had never babysat for his family, knew his wife and children, or plied her with alcohol.

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