My boyfriend had an affair with a SCHOOLBOY!
David Le Brocq and his son Ethan
Thursday 13th September 2007
The words rattled round my brain but refused to register.
'What did you say?' I gasped.
'I'm gay,' my boyfriend, David Le Brocq, 27, repeated. 'I've met a man.'
David and I had been dating for seven months and I was 17 weeks pregnant with his child. I'd imagined moving in together, wedding bells.
'How could you?' I yelled.
I felt like ripping him limb from limb. Instead, I stormed out of his Bournemouth flat and, numb with shock, and caught the train back to my house in Reading. How could the man I'd imagined spending the rest of my life with be gay?
Eight months earlier, in June 2003, I'd been struggling to find a job as a drama teacher near my home in Toronto, Canada, so I'd decided to try my luck in the UK.
My interview at Thamesbridge College Comprehensive, in Reading, had been my first and David, the Head of Drama, had interviewed me. I thought he was gorgeous. Like Tom Cruise, but taller.
I got the job and on my first day at work, David showed me the ropes. He was sweet and softly spoken, but at the same time confident and sexy.
'You don't find Canadian men like that,' I thought.
Then two weeks later David invited me to a friend's party and, at the end of the night, we'd kissed.
'You're lovely,' he'd told me.
I started staying over at his flat and we enjoyed walks along the beach. We kept our relationship a secret at school but I couldn't have been happier.
When I fell pregnant in November 2003 we were both delighted. Now, three months later, it had all turned to dust.
It was half term so luckily I didn't have to face anyone. After crying for two days, I called David.
'We need to talk,' I said.
'Just go back to Canada,' he snapped.
How could he be so cruel? Where was the sweet, kind David I'd fallen in love with?
Over the following months David ignored me at school but I held my head up. At least his parents, Karen, 42, and Dave, 47, were supportive.
'Come and stay with us for the birth,' they offered. So when the school term ended, I moved to their house in Southampton. And in August 2004, it was Karen and Dave beside me at Princess Anne Hospital, in Southampton, as I gave birth to my son, Ethan.
I fell in love with him at first sight.
'He's beautiful,' Karen gasped.
She must have phoned David to tell him the news because that afternoon he visited. He softened as he looked into his son's face.
'He's lovely,' he gasped.
Was he regretting letting us go?
It seemed that way because the following week...
'Let's give it another go,' he blurted.
'But you're gay,' I gasped.
'I was confused,' he shrugged. 'I know what I want now.'
I'd be crazy to accept, right? But what if he had been confused? What if the prospect of becoming a dad had simply spooked him? More than anything, I wanted Ethan to know his dad. So I agreed.
David had a new job as Deputy Head at Bovington Middle School, in Wareham, Dorset, and seemed happy. Our sex life went back to normal as soon as I moved back in. Surely if he really was gay then making love to me would repulse him?
But he never held back on that front and when Ethan was 3 months old, in November 2004, I fell pregnant again.
'Wonderful news,' David beamed.
But then, a few weeks later, a teacher from Thamesbridge College called.
'I don't know how to tell you this…' she began. 'I've heard a rumour about David and Karl Donaldson.'
'What?' I frowned.
Karl was a pupil who both David and I had taught the previous year. A tall, good looking lad it was no secret that he was gay.
'Apparently Karl and David were seeing each other from February to August 2004,' she said.
'Ridiculous,' I gasped.
Karl would have been 15 back then.
Then I realised. David had dumped me in February and asked me back in August.
I should have gone to the police but I couldn't. I was scared witless. Miles from home, mum to a 5-month-old baby with another one on the way I needed David at my side. So I kept quiet.
Then, three months later, in February 2005, I checked his text messages. I hear congratulations are in order, it said. …love, Karl. I presumed he was talking about the pregnancy. But why would Karl have David's number? Why would he text a teacher? Unless it was true…
Over those next few months David and I started arguing and I accepted our relationship was dead. After another huge row in April I moved into the spare room. It was time to stop being such a doormat. The man had lied to me. It was payback time.
The following month I plucked up the courage to phone the police and Child Protection Service.
'I want to report someone…' I began.
It was six weeks before representatives from Dorset Council interviewed David at school.
I was still living with him and he came home in a foul mood.
'Someone's reported me for having a relationship with Karl,' he snapped.
'T-that's horrible!' I spluttered.
I wanted to move out but I was only days away from having the baby. So I stuck it out.
When I gave birth our 6lb 12oz daughter, Caitlin, at home on July 20th, David was by my side. To say it was weird is an understatement. I'd reported this man yet here he was coaching me through labour.
Then, when Ethan was 13 months and Caitlin 2 months, David came home early.
'I've been suspended,' he announced. 'Take the kids and go home to Canada.'
I didn't need telling twice. Within a week we were on a flight.
In those following months David flew to Canada to visit the children but we never talked about the investigation. I just couldn't bear to hear him admit that he'd had an affair with Karl. Instead I followed the news on a local newspaper website.
In October 2006 David appeared at Reading Crown Court charged with five counts of
sexual activity with a male aged between 13 and 17. Karl and his mum, Donna Stacey, 36, were witnesses and told the court that Karl did have a six month affair with his teacher, having sex with him for the first time the night of his 16th birthday.
The jury failed to reach a verdict, but in a retrial in May 2007, David was found guilty and jailed for one year and put on the sex offenders' register. I haven't spoken to David cince then. I have no idea whether he knows it was me who reported him nor do I care.
Karl was just a child. A pupil in our care. David should never have abused his position in such a twisted way. I just want him to stay as far away from me and the kids as possible.
Want more real life? Check out some other brilliant reads exclusively from Pick Me Up.
Forced to rob a bank
The fattest girl in the world