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PE teacher's campaign of sexual abuse, claim
A PE teacher carried out a three-year campaign of sexual abuse which left a teenage girl on the brink of suicide, a court heard.
Graham Vardy, of Arnold Avenue, Gleadless, Sheffield, is accused of carrying out the attacks at Meadowhead School in the 1990s.
The 55-year-old is accused of 12 counts of indecent assault - 11 against one girl when she was aged between 13 and 15, and one against a second girl, whom Vardy allegedly kissed when she was 15.
A DVD of the first victim's interview with specialist police in the Sheffield-based child abuse unit was played to a jury at Sheffield Crown Court.
The woman, now in her 20s, repeatedly broke down in tears, crying: "I can't do this, I can't cope", as she was questioned.
The court heard Vardy showed "no interest" in her during her first two years at school, but when she was in Year 9 he asked her to stay behind after a tutorial.
She said: "I wondered if I had done anything wrong" - but the court heard Vardy praised her for achieving a high mark in her geography work.
She added: "He told me he was really proud of me and then kissed me. I was up against a wall and he just gripped me really tight and rammed
his tongue down my throat.
"It was disgusting and made me want to retch."
She claimed Vardy repeatedly lured her to the PE department office - sometimes saying he needed to talk to her about alleged misbehaviour.
"A couple of times he would just sit and talk but the third time he touched me," she said.
She claimed attacks then happened roughly once a week.
The woman told jurors Vardy indecently assaulted her, and twice forced her to commit a sex act.
She said the door to the PE office was closed but not locked while Vardy was abusing her and said: "I just thought, 'Please will somebody walk in'."
She also told the court Vardy would touch her if she walked past him in the corridor and kissed her during an end of term celebration.
The court heard she did not complain at the time because she did not think anyone would take her seriously because she was "not exactly a model pupil".
She said: "Who would have believed a 14-year-old like me? I refused to go to PE lessons, then more or less stopped going to school.
"I tried to commit suicide because of this when I was 15 and ended up in Sheffield Children's Hospital."
Timothy Bubb, defending, told the court she had signed a card for Vardy with fellow members of her form when they left Meadowhead School, in which she praised him as a teacher and described him as a "bestest friend".
Mr Bubb also questioned why, if she could not bear to go near Vardy, she admitted accepting a cassette of 1990s girl band All Saints as a gift from him.
The woman said she could not remember when she received it - but the court heard the tape was not made until a year after she left school.
She also said she could not remember signing the card.
Vardy denies all charges and the trial continues.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
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Wind direction: South east
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