Ex-headmaster who groped boy is jailed
A former headteacher has been jailed for 16 months after he admitted groping a teenage boy and taking naked pictures of him.
Robert Haines, aged 45, lavished gifts and 'pocket money' on the boy, took him on trips and exchanged thousands of texts using a phone owned by his school.
Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard how Haines had begun the inappropriate relationship while he was headteacher of a school in north Staffordshire.
Haines, of Shifnal, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child under 16, two counts of taking indecent photos of a child, and two counts of making indecent images.
He also admitted inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Jailing him for 16 months, Judge David Fletcher told him: "Your career in the teaching profession is clearly, categorically, at an end.
"That in itself, for someone who has made a comparatively stellar rise in that profession, is a huge disadvantage and a disadvantage that you will have to live with for the rest of your life."
Haines will serve half his sentence in prison and the rest on licence. He has also been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.
Haines was suspended after staff raised concerns about his behaviour and he resigned part-way through a local authority investigation. It was after his arrest that more than 150 indecent images were found.
