Female music teacher convicted of sexual abuse of pupils

A teacher was sentenced to nearly five years imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Monday for sexual abuse of her pupils.

A female music teacher at a school in Vantaa pursued sexual acts with two boys between 2012 and 2016. The boys were at the time between 12 and 15, and the teacher around 40.

The situation was uncovered when one of the boys talked to the police.

The teacher maintained in the court process that the acts had taken place in mutual understanding. She admitted, however, that she had abused the children.

The punishment range for sexual abuse of children in Finland is from one to ten years. A local court had first given under four years, and appeals court raised the prison term to five years and the supreme court, in a 3-against-2, gave 4 years 8 months which acknowledged that the teacher had helped the investigation.

The sentence covered also aggravated misuse of the position of authority of the teacher.

Local media were split in the publication of the name of the convicted teacher. National broadcaster Yle withheld the name to protect the boys, while a leading Finnish Language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published her name.

The Supreme Court released the name of the teacher in public, but did not publish part of the sentence to protect the boys.