Forty-year-old math teacher Timothy Gledhill found himself in an unfortunate situation, from what started as a seemingly playful incident. Now, he has an assault charge.
According to Daily Mail Online , Timothy Gledhill appeared before a judge at Canterbury Crown Court. He was trying to appeal his case against ex-girlfriend Catherine Weir, who filed an assault report against him. As deemed by the court, he sprayed her with a water pistol against her will.
As the court replayed the recording of the incident, Weir was heard screaming, “Stop! Stop! Stop shooting me!” Gledhill found it playful and pleaded that he hadn’t done anything wrong. However, Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl didn’t feel the same about it.
The judge asked the math teacher if any of the water made contact with Ms. Weir. Gledhill replied that it wasn’t a certainty but a situation of probability. The teacher stated further that his ex-girlfriend wasn’t hurt by the incident but was only attempting to “get him in trouble.”
However, Judge Nigel felt that Gledhill, “for some reason,” was trying to humiliate his ex by spraying her against her will. Likewise, he told Gledhill that his acts weren’t funny. The judge stated as follows.
“You thought you were being clever in covering your tracks. But she was a victim of an assault and there is no doubt about it…You knew perfectly well what you were doing. You did it to in some way humiliate her and to put one over on her.”
The 40-year-old math teacher has stated that this conviction has done irreparable damage to his professional name and credibility. Since the incident, Timothy Gledhill has left Canterbury College and has taken a position at Canterbury Academy.
There, Gledhill has full support from his co-workers and colleagues. They say that this ruling should have never taken place. Canterbury Academy principal Phil Karnavas mentioned that Timothy has spent several thousand British pounds attempting to clear his name of the incident. Reportedly, the principal states as follows.
“It has left most of us somewhat surprised that A, it got that far and B, we’ve ended where we have. Mr Gledhill continues to have my full professional and personal support. The bottom line is he’s a really nice, honourable and decent bloke that has found himself in a situation that none of us would like to find ourselves.
“He was so morally offended by it and so upset by the fact that he was carrying the record for something he didn’t recognize as being anything other than being a bit daft. It’s cost him a significant amount of money and has experienced a significant degree of nervous anxiety and professional stress. I think spraying someone with a water pistol doesn’t really seem to me to be an offense to public safety let alone a halfway appropriate use of public money.”
Kent Online further reports the principal’s response as follows.
“The school is aware of Mr Gledhill’s ongoing personal circumstances since he has always been very open, candid and honest with us about them. It is not for me to comment upon his personal relationship difficulties, the fall out of a relationship break-up or upon the merits of the court case except, perhaps, to say that I would not want to have gone through it. Suffice it to say, they have little, if any, bearing upon his ability as a teacher.”
Nevertheless, as a result of the judge’s ruling, the math teacherwas given a 12-month conditional discharge, and he had to pay his ex-girlfriend approximately $600 for her assault deposition.
The judge’s call may seem to hold merit. According to Kent Online , this wasn’t Gledhill’s first nuisance against his ex-girlfriend. There were two other, separate complaints that she filed prior to the water gun incident. Maybe that’s why she had a recording to present to the court. It wasn’t staged but perhaps predicted, and she was prepared to gather evidence this time around. Possibly, just as the judge noted, he knew exactly what he was doing.
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