School mentor who sent vulnerable teenage boy thousands of sexual messages says she 'will never apologise'
18 November 2022, 12:44
A school mentor who sent a teenage boy at her school thousands of "sexual" texts will never apologise, her fiance has said.
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Ellen Cadman-Smith, 24, sent the 15-year-old 3,000 texts over just two months, including one when she told him: "I think I'm falling for you".
Ms Cadman-Smith, a mother of one, also told the boy: "I want you so badly”, that he was driving her "insane” and that she was “thinking about him non-stop”.
She told him she was “half-naked” in one of her messages, adding: “I can’t have you and you know why”, before she arranged to meet him in her car.
When confronted by the Sun outside her home on the Isle of Wight this week, Ms Cadman-Smith did not say sorry.
She disappeared wordlessly inside the house when asked if she wanted to apologise.
Her fiance said that "there will never be an apology."
Ms Cadman-Smith's behaviour was only uncovered when the boy's mother discovered the texts, from a contact known only as 'E'.
Ms Cadman-Smith suffers from 'extreme anxiety' and other issues, which means she was not deemed mentally fit to stand trial.
Instead, her behaviour was adjudicated on a 'trial of issue' - a rare process where the jury simply decide whether the act took place, without assigning criminal blame on the person who did it.
In this case, it only took the jury three minutes to decide that Ms Cadman-Smith had done the deed.
The court heard how Ms Cadman-Smith was a mentor at Cowes Enterprise College - formerly known as Cowes High School - on the Isle of Wight, where she supported children with "behavioural, mental health and learning difficulties".
Jurors were told she and the boy developed a connection after she began working with him.
Prosecutor Mary Aspinall-Miles said: "[The boy] started accessing her services. They were covering up their behaviour at school... they thought they were in some kind of relationship.
"She told the boy she 'had feelings' for him but that she couldn't 'have him.'"
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At first, Ms Cadman-Smith and the boy only exchanged "emotional and supportive messages".
But she later started telling him that she was "thinking about him non-stop, and at one point told him: "I can't have you and you know why".
She added: "OMG, I'm falling for you and thinking about things I probably shouldn't," sharing a winking emoji.
Ms Cadman-Smith, who had a boyfriend at the time, told him: "I want you so badly... the things I could do to you right now are driving me insane." She added that she was "saving everything" for him.
They would also meet up for drives in her car and go to Burger King together.
Ms Cadman-Smith later broke up with her boyfriend and suggested that she and the boy go away to spend a night in a hotel.
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At one point she messaged him: "I don't know what I did differently [last night] but I've got a bit of a sore throat today though."
In a separate text, she also told the boy she was half-naked and said he was "definitely a bum man".
No evidence was given in her defence during the hearing.
Ms Cadman-Smith engaged in sexual communication with a child, the jury found. The judge imposed a five-year sexual harm prevention order on her.
Under the terms of the order, she must make all her devices available for inspection, they must all have the ability to retain search history and she has been told she must not delete her search history. She had to hand over her phone, and it was destroyed.
Ms Cadman-Smith must also not contact a child under the age of 16 using social media, other than her immediate family members.
Giving her an absolute discharge, the judge said: "It is clear that sexual activity did take place between them. She was in a position of responsibility... [It was] a breach of trust."
"She plainly knew it was wrong to do what she was doing. It was a huge error."
Cadman-Smith - who has a one-year-old child - will also be placed on the sex offenders register for five years as well as being barred from working with children. She was also ordered to forfeit her mobile phone which will be destroyed.
