A teacher who had a illicit relationship with a pupil in a layby following a school dance has rebuilt her life after remarrying and starting a family.
Eppie Sprung Dawson, a former English teacher, had been caught with the pupil, 17, by police in 2012, after initially offering to help him with his lessons at St Joseph's College in Dumfries.
It was later revealed that they had also had sex in the school's PE department while the boy's mother waited at the school gates.
Sprung lost her job and her first marriage ended as a result. In 2013, she admitted to breach of trust in court and was given a six-month community payback order, which included compulsory psychosexual counselling.
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She was also added to the sex offenders' register for six months.
Sprung recently called into a BBC Radio Scotland phone-in to express her frustration with the ongoing "stigma" she faces due to the incident.
Sprung has turned her life around, remarrying building company owner Chris Atkinson at Cheylesmore Manor House in Coventry in 2021, and having two young children with him.
A friend told the Daily Mail: "Eppie was at her lowest point after her conviction. She lost the career she loved, and her marriage collapsed. Now she is happy again and she is looking forward to the future. She has put what happened in the past."
Last year, Sprung received a grant of £7,530 from the National Lottery Community Fund to establish a website for her initiative, Next Chapter Scotland. The charity's mission is to "'help anyone who has been involved with the criminal justice system to navigate the stigma and discrimination that they can face throughout their lives".
Her aim is to provide a platform for individuals in Scotland with criminal records to "share their experiences", and assist them in dealing with "navigate discrimination".
During a radio phone-in this week, she opened up about the stigma she personally faces, revealing: "I have a conviction for a sexual offence. I was a teacher and I had an affair with a 17-year-old pupil.
"So I do have experience of, kind of, living with the challenges that a person can face as a result of having a criminal record. I never experienced a custodial sentence, but I certainly did experience stigma. I mean, I had an exceptionally large amount of press coverage and media coverage for many, many years following my conviction.
"And I think I would say that was the most difficult thing I experienced. But I mean, of course, as with people with a conviction for a sexual offence particularly, face the highest degree of stigma. And so things like employment, even things like not being invited to my daughter's friends' birthday parties."
Back in 2012, a student had alerted the police after noticing the teacher departing the end-of-term event with her young companion. The affair cost Sprung herjob and concluded her two-year marriage to her lecturer spouse.
She subsequently relocated her young lover into the marital residence much to the anger of his family, who alleged she showered their son with presents, such as football shirts and Xbox games. However he eventually moved out.
