A public school music teacher was today jailed for lesbian sex with a 15-year-old pupil - but was given an astonishing green light to continue the 'affair' when out of prison.

The court heard trumpet teacher Helen Goddard, 26, used sex toys and fluffy handcuffs on the 'vulnerable' child, helped weave a web of lies so the girl could stay in her flat overnight, and took her on a dirty weekend in Paris, where they joined a gay pride march.

But despite hearing from the girl's parents the devastating effect the five-month sexual relationship had on the teenager, Judge Anthony Pitts rejected a prosecution request to ban the teacher from contacting her victim for five years, claiming it would be 'cruel' to the child.

Instead, she is allowed to write to her now, and will be able to see her in private the moment she is released from jail, likely to be just half-way through her 15-month sentence.

Goddard actually punched the air in victory in the dock when she realised her 'relationship' with her still-underage pupil could continue.

Goddard, a child musical prodigy who went on to become student union president at the Trinity College of Music in London, where she earned her degree, started work as a trumpet teacher at the victim's £13,000-a-year girls' school in 2006.

As well as taking children for private lessons, she also ran a lunchtime jazz club, earning her the nickname 'The Jazz Lady'.

The head of music at the prestigious London school - which cannot be named for legal reasons - told London's Southwark crown court in a statement: 'The girls all adored her, and would flock to her room at break times.

'I did speak to her about the dangers of being over-friendly and too popular.'

But slim blonde-haired Goddard, in the dock wearing a tight blouse, waistcoat, and pinstripe trousers, ignored the warning, and fast became increasingly close to her victim, one of her trumpet pupils.

The girl, traumatised after her parents separated several years ago, told police she and her teacher went for coffees together after lessons, and began confiding in each other.

By January of this year, the girl invited the teacher to join her parents dog walking on Hampstead Heath - and then began to visit Goddard's flat on a run-down estate in Greenwich, south-east London, with her father's knowledge.

Flirting and text messages followed - and in February this year, the pair went for a walk near the school, and kissed for the first time. Days later, they shared a bed at Goddard's flat, and soon began sexual activity.

From then on, the girl would stay with her teacher every Friday or Saturday night, telling her parents she was with a schoolfriend.

Prosecutor Regina Naughton said: 'Miss Goddard was aware it was the girl's first sexual relationship.
Ex-boyfriend: Jonathan Ansell was previously in G4

Ex-boyfriend: Jonathan Ansell was previously in G4

'She performed sex acts on the girl, and the victim described a lot of grinding and rubbing themselves together, with and without clothes.

'They became more experimental, and used vibrators and handcuffs.

'They had sexual relations once at the girl's mother's house, and twice at her father's.'

By June Goddard was so brazen that when the girl told her parents she was visiting her older sister in Paris, she in fact stayed in a hotel with her teacher, and joined her on a gay pride march there.

The girl told two fellow pupils about her relationship with the teacher, however, and the school became abuzz with gossip.

In July, 'a concerned parent' sent anonymous emails to the school to report the relationship, and called on the head to 'Please act quickly'.

The parents were informed, and police were called - and when the mother tried to track her daughter down, she discovered she was at Goddard's home. The child admitted everything, but said she loved her teacher.

When police raided the flat, said the prosecutor: 'Miss Goddard handed over a vibrator and a strap, a set of fluffy handcuffs, another vibrator and sexual lubricant.

'Miss Goddard claimed she had only used the vibrator and strap on a previous girlfriend.'

Analysis of phones showed the girl had sent her teacher 157 texts, while the teacher had sent 60 back, many sexually explicit.

One from Goddard to the child said: 'It's going to be a beautiful day. I love you. You are on my mind all night.'

Goddard refused to answer police questions, but at a hearing last month admitted six specimen counts of sexual activity with a child:

The victim's parents said in a witness impact statement: 'Under the guise of helping our daughter, Miss Goddard was betraying our trust in a relation to a vulnerable child in her care.

'Our daughter has been deprived of the opportunity for normal age-appropriate development of sexual relations.

'And from our understanding, Miss Goddard and our daughter feel it is possible to continue their relationship when she is 16 at the end of this month. We do not believe Miss Goddard has fully understood the seriousness of what has occurred.'

Goddard's barrister Anthony Heaton-Armstrong claimed in mitigation the teacher was 'subjected to a lot of pressure from the child', and added: 'Miss Goddard is quite young for her age.'

Clearly accepting the strength of feeling the victim still professes for her abuser, Judge Pitts refused to bar Goddard from contacting her, saying: 'It would be unnecessary, unkind, and cruel to the victim.'

But he jailed her for 15 months, saying: 'This case is so serious an immediate sentence of imprisonment is inevitable.'

Goddard, who wept as she was taken to the cells, will have to sign the sex offenders' register for ten years, and is banned from teaching children for life.

But the judge refused to ban her from being alone with underage girls.

Goddard was one of only six British teenagers to play at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

She is known to have had several boyfriends, including Jonathan Ansell, the tenor who found fame as one quarter of G4, the operatic boyband.

...used sex toys and fluffy handcuffs ...and took her on a dirty weekend in Paris....

When police raided the flat, said the prosecutor: 'Miss Goddard handed over a vibrator and a strap, a set of fluffy handcuffs, another vibrator and sexual lubricant.

but judge gives green light for them to be together when she gets out