William Kyle admitted having sex with the girl

Mrs Kyle, 37, immediately reported him to police where he confessed to officers that he had had sexual intercourse with a girl under 16.

Kyle had admitted two charges relating to sexual intercourse with the girl.

Sheriff Charles MacFarlane jailed him for nine months for having sex with an underage girl and a further year, to run concurrently, on the second charge of having breached her trust as her teacher.

Sheriff MacFarlane said: "By your conduct you flagrantly abused the position of trust which you found yourself in in relation to the complainer.

"In all the circumstances I consider that the public interest demands that such conduct be dealt with by a custodial sentence.

Position of trust

"A non-custodial sentence would be inappropriate and unrealistic and would fail to reflect the gravity of the offences which you have pleaded guilty to."

The sheriff said the further three months imposed for the second charge reflected the position of trust which had existed between teacher and pupil and which had been breached by Kyle.

Kyle, who has been suspended from his job since February this year, has been placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

Last month, the court was told how the teacher and pupil had become close during a school trip to Holland two years ago.

As their friendship grew, Kyle and the girl would meet at night and go for drives in his car.

By your conduct you flagrantly abused the position of trust which you found yourself in in relation to the complainer.

Sheriff MacFarlane

The court had heard that the girl sent the teacher a text message on his mobile phone saying, 'I Love You', and an e-mail which was found by a principal teacher at his school and his wife.

The case had been deferred for social inquiry reports.

Defence solicitor Gerry Sweeney said his client was "deeply ashamed" of what had taken place.

He said Kyle had actively sought counselling from his family doctor as well as his parish priest in the wake of what he had done.

Suffering from stress

Mr Sweeney argued that sending Kyle to jail would serve no purpose and would not "cure" the problems he faced.

He had been suffering from stress and anxiety at the time of the offence as a result of problems with his marriage.

Kyle and his wife, who have a three-year-old son, had separated and the couple were actively trying to rebuild their relationship.

The teacher had not engineered the sexual intercourse and had been unable to control the development of the relationship because of his vulnerability, the court heard.