Former teacher jailed after grooming and engaging in sexual activity with teenager

A teacher has been jailed after grooming and engaging in sexual activity with a teenage girl in Lytham St Annes.

At the beginning of January this year police received a report from the victim’s parent concerned that David Brown, a secondary school teacher in the Lytham St Annes area had been targeting their teenage daughter for his own sordid sexual interests.

The abuse started in July 2024 when Brown convinced the girl, a pupil at his school, that he genuinely cared about her, brazenly grooming her using his school email account.

He then began to communicate with the girl on social media and video calls, once when he was just in his underwear.

In December 2025, Brown (pictured below) kissed the teenager. After that, his campaign of sexual abuse continued. He would drive the girl to secluded areas before engaging in sexual activity with her on some occasions. On others, he would cause her to engage in sexual activity at a property.

Once the report was made, enquiries began, and as part of those enquiries police searched Brown’s classroom, where we found four mobile phones in one of his desk drawers.

They also found evidence of around 700 text messages between Brown and the victim, all of a sexual nature. Some showed Brown purposely attempting to get the girl on her own so he could commit his offending.

He was arrested, and interviewed, where he answered ‘no comment’ to all questions.

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, Brown, 35, now of no fixed abode, bur formerly of an address in St Annes was charged.

He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual communication with a child, three counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity at Preston Crown court, and re-appeared in the dock today where he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register.

The victim’s mum provided a Victim Impact Statement, saying: “This incident has kept me awake night after night for months, with feelings of guilt, guilt that I was not able to do what I consider to be the most important job in the world, protecting my child.”

She added: “I feel that David has stolen a year of our lives, a year of childhood memories I should be making for my daughters have been taken away, when I should be on family holidays and making positive experiences, instead have been spent having to deal with David’s actions as a family together.”

DS Adam Errington, of West Child Abuse Investigation Team said: “First and foremost, I must recognise the victim in this case. She was made to believe that Brown cared for her, that he had done nothing wrong. She was not only a victim of his sexual crimes, but also of his mental abuse.

‘’Since the report was made to us, she has shown strength beyond her years in what must have been a horrific time in her life. I can only hope that she now knows that justice has been served, and that Brown has been held accountable for his actions that were so wrong.

 “Brown is a paedophile who tried to disguise himself as a trusted member of society. He abused his position as a teacher, as a person with a responsibility for young people’s wellbeing all for his own sordid sexual interests.

“I welcome the custodial sentence against him, and hope that he uses his time behind bars to truly reflect on how reprehensible his actions were.

“I want to send a message to young people out there today who may be a victim of sexual offences, without realising they are. It isn’t love – it is manipulation, and it is a crime. If you or someone you know may be a victim of sexual offences, please tell us, or someone you trust. We will listen to you, we will believe you, and we will do all we can to get you justice.”