A THORNBURY secondary school teacher who breached his position of trust by sending "inappropriate" text messages to a 14-year-old girl pupil walked free from court this week.

"Well-meaning idiocy" led 52-year-old former PE teacher Irvin Gale into throwing away his 28-year career and the respect of the community, Bristol Crown Court was told.

One of the messages said: "Just getting into a hot bath with a glass of red wine. Wish you were here" and ended with three kisses. Another message had a more sexually explicit content.

Gale, of Orchard Avenue, Thornbury, admitted breaching a position of trust between April and June last year. At an earlier hearing he denied a further allegation of indecent assault and a not guilty verdict was entered after the prosecution offered no evidence.

After hearing that reports on Gale showed him to be of low risk of re-offending or of harming children, Judge Paul Barclay conditionally discharged him for three years and ordered his name to go on Sex Offenders Registers for the same period.

Judge Barclay said: "This has been a difficult time for you but nothing less than a nightmare for the girl and her family. You brought this on yourself."

But he said he accepted that the offence did not merit a jail term and other sentences available to the court was also unsuitable.

Anna Vigars, prosecuting, told the court: "Between April 1 and June 13, 2003, this defendant exchanged a number of text messages of which two are the subject of this charge.

"They reached a stage where complaints were initiated which she followed through in a video interview."

George Threlfall, defending, said Gale thought the girl seemed " isolated and low in self-confidence" and gave her his mobile phone number, telling her to call him only if she was desperate to talk.

"He did it to help her," he said. "He should never have given her his number and he should never have had hers.

"It resulted in two inappropriate text messages being sent to her. It was a catastrophic error of judgement and he has paid a high price for being a well-meaning idiot. He has been extremely foolish but the last thing he wanted was to cause distress to this young woman."

Mr Threlfall said the girl herself was prepared to accept a degree of responsibility, although Gale did not blame her in any way.

The court heard Gale resigned his position when matters came to light and was now doing night shift factory work and had lost his full teacher's pension entitlement.

"He cannot go back to teaching. He would like to but the reality is he never will," said Mr Threlfall. "In financial terms and in terms of his standing, he has paid a very, very significant penalty."

He said that other "more lascivious" text messages to the girl's phone were not sent by Gale but came from "another source or sources" which had not been indentified.

Judge Barclay told the girl's family, who were in court: "She should not feel guilty for reporting this matter. This is a common reaction but she must not take any discomfort."

Only time would tell whether the girl had suffered psychological harm as a result of the Gale's behaviour, he said.

Speaking after the hearing, the girl's mother said a conditional discharge was wholly inadequate to meet the seriousness of the offence.

"My daughter is now totally screwed up because of this," she said. "She trusted him and so did we and he betrayed that trust. She thought she was texting a friend but then his messages became more sexual.

"I wanted to see him to go to prison. A nine-month sentence would have been more appropriate, considering what he has put her and us through."