Sex abuse teacher’s jail term plea fails

A FORMER school teacher - jailed for having alcohol-fuelled sex with two teenage boys - can have no complaint about her tough jail term, top judges have ruled.

Married mum Jennifer Philp-Parsons, 46, has seen a challenge against her two-and-a-half-year sentence rejected.

Philp-Parsons, of Exmouth, was jailed for a total of 30 months at Exeter Crown Court last year after she admitted three charges of adult abuse of trust by having sexual activity with a boy who was aged between 13 and 17.

Three senior judges at London Appeal Court ruled last week that it is not even ‘arguable’ Philp-Parsons’ jail term was too harsh.

The mother-of-three groomed the two youths and bedded them separately after plying them with booze in what Mrs Justice Simler called ‘very serious sexual offences’.

In September, Judge Francis Gilbert QC had branded Philp-Parsons a ‘sordid adulteress’ on handing her consecutive terms of 12 months and 18 months for the offences on either boy.

Applying to appeal on Wednesday (April 16), her lawyers argued that Judge Gilbert erred in imposing consecutive sentences instead of allowing them to run concurrent, which resulted in a total term that was simply too long.

But Mrs Justice Simler, sitting with Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Spencer, said the judge was ‘entitled’ to structure the sentence as he did to reflect the troubling impact of the offences on each victim.

She added: “Despite Philp-Parsons’ personal mitigation, and the significant impact on her family that these sentences will no doubt have, we are of the view that the judge passed a sentence that was fully justified by the facts of these serious offences.

“The sentence of 30 months is not arguably manifestly excessive.

“Accordingly this application is refused,” the appeal judge concluded.