This is a controversial post.Yesterday, a Liverpool court convicted world-class tennis coach Claire Lyte of having a year-long lesbian affair with her 13 year old pupil. Lyte faces almost inevitable jail time and has signed the sex-offenders register. She will be sentenced next month.
However, given my limited background on the case, gleaned from Yahoo and This Is London Online, I'm not entirely convinced by it all.
The girl's mother claims that she discovered Lyte in a naked tryst with her daughter when returning home from a party. Instead of reporting it to the police - or even Lyte's tennis agency - the mother continued to allow Lyte to instruct her daughter. She was even allowed to stay at the house the same night that the mother alleges this incident took place.
In fact, it wasn't until the Lawn Tennis Association dropped the 13 year old victim from their training program that the mother decided to come forward with her allegations - almost an entire year after she'd apparently learnt about the affair.
I guess the jury must have had further evidence to support these claims - otherwise it seems clear that the mother's allegations are just a cynical ploy to 'get back' at the association that decided her daughter 'wasn't good enough.'
Why else would a mother remain silent about her daughter's sexual abuse for an entire year before making the allegations?
If the victim's mother had really witnessed the alleged incident, how could she coolly ignore it and still allow a sexual predator to coach her daughter and accompany her, unattended, on overnight trips to tennis competitions across the country?
The jury was left to decide whether Claire Lyte was truly guilty of this crime or not. I hope they made the right decision.
What's up to us to decide is whether the victim's mother was a callous, heartless woman who ignored her daughter's sexual abuse for an entire year - or is just a mean spirited liar, who is destroying a young woman's life and career in an act of petty vengeance against the Lawn Tennis Association.
3 comments:
Agree with your blog.
I'm very surprised by Judge Nigel Gilmour QC's comments of overwhelming evidence. Well, I've followed the media reports of the case and there was overwhelming evidence of a very close relationship but no evidence at all that it was sexual - only two different version of events by family Lyte and family X, both equally likely?
Shame, mum X can hide in anonymity while Claire Lyte's life is practically destroyed.
I too agree with your report. Two years and nine months is savage and completely over the top, when you consider far more serious crimes of violence routinely receive a slap on the wrist.
This case makes me very angry - you're quite correct "anonymous", there's no evidence of a physical relationship at all.
Take it you know that the 13yr old had already accused another (male) coach of rape previously?
Miss Lyte is appealing & I for one wish her luck - we are now in the position where "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" is overturned when a minor is involved...surely there is "reasonable doubt" here at the very least!
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