Teacher sentenced for abusing students sexually

A court on Friday convicted a school teacher in Helsinki for abusing five students sexually and sentenced him to a 18-months suspended imprisonment, local media reported.

The Helsinki District awarded the punishment to the teacher of a Swedish language school for nine incidents of sexual abuse occurred in between 2013 and 2017.

The court also ordered the convict to pay compensations of EUR 1,500 euros to one victims and EUR 1,200 to four other victims each, reported National Broadcaster Yle.

The 43 year-old convict, however, denied the charges brought against him saying that when he touched the students he was providing massages and other forms of assistance without any sexual intent.

According to the court verdict, the teacher had sent messages with homosexual images and texts to young boys, which prompted the school authority to issue a written warning against him in 2014. But he did not pay heed to the warning and continued the inappropriate activities.

The school lodged a criminal report against the teacher in early 2017.

The principal of the school is also facing trial on charge of negligence of duty and the hearing of the case will begin in 2019.

Earlier, in October a teacher was sentenced to nearly five years imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Monday for sexual abuse of her pupils.

The 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.