Teacher cleared of assault in Swansea

AN ART teacher sobbed with relief as a jury cleared her of assaulting a pupil with a glue stick.

Lynda May, 54, of Neath, South Wales, broke down and wept as she was found not guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm to a teenage pupil's thumbnail.

The jury at Swansea Crown Court took three hours to reach their verdict at the end of a brief trial lasting less than two days.

The teaching veteran of more than 30 years was charged with the offence in October last year, more than five weeks after the classroom incident.

She insisted throughout that what was described as a "relatively minor injury" to the schoolboy had been caused accidentally. It happened after the teenager had slammed a glue stick down on her hand during an art lesson.