Claire Lyte (born 27 September 1978)
is a former professional tennis player and former national tennis
coach from Shirley, West Midlands. She is currently serving a custodial sentence
for a conviction of four counts of sexual assault against a child.
Lyte pursued a career as a
tennis professional, and even appeared at Wimbelton
before her career was cut premature by injury in 1998. Instead,
she took up coaching and in 2001 was named the Young Coach of the Year by the
LTA. She helped bring through emerging talent at the LTA Centre in
Southborough.
In October 2005, the mother of one of Lyte's students
allegedly found her and her 13-year-old daughter in bed, performing oral sex on
each other. It is believed an inappropriate relationship had been going on for
an unknown period prior this discovery; as the LTA had already given Lyte an
official warning over her conduct with the girl. This included sharing a toilet
cubicle with the girl and possibly sharing intimate texts between each other.
Lyte admitted during her trial that the relationship had contravened the
guidelines of the LTA, in becoming close with the student, but she was reticent
towards it and that it had never become sexual in nature. It became evident in
court that the girl was perhaps bullied at school and had an unhappy home life;
with Lyte claiming that the mother was "pushy and ambitious".
However, the child's mother chose against reporting this
incident to the police; despite calling Lyte a paedophile immediately after the
incident, and claiming Lyte told her she loved her daughter. She justified
this alleging she received assurances from both Lyte and Lyte's father, who
intervened on her behalf, that it would not happen again and would be to the
detriment of her daughter's wishes to do so, in possibly jeopordising her career
by taking away her coach. Her daughter also asked her to "trust her". The
victim's grandmother alleged during the trial that Colin Lyte and Ms. Lyte had
threatened her were she to go to the police, during an intervention between the
two families. In subsequent months, Lyte and the girl were allowed to go
shopping together and spend time alone at hotels.
It was not until 9 months later, in August 2006, that the
girl's mother was prompted in to alerting the police, when she allegedly found
Lyte wearing her daughter's clothing; later telling the court that, "My
stomach turned." She also described Lyte's attitude as dismissive and said
that she was smirking. Lyte informed the girl's mother at this point that the
girl had played poorly and would not be admitted in to the next tournament. The
defence later claimed, in court, that it was because of this revelation that the
girl's mother concocted the story, upset that her daughter's career would not be
as successful as she had hoped.
Upon searching Lyte's home and belongings, the police
discovered underwear belonging to the girl (with a name tag), with Lyte's DNA on
them, which she admitted to wearing, albeit accidentally. Police also
recovered a pink jumper and pyjama bottoms, a Helly Hanson jacket and a pair of
shoes all belonging to the girl. It also emerged that texts of a more explicit
nature had occurred between the pair; one in which the girl announced that 'What
we have done isn't just amazing but fucking amazing and I really love you and
love what's happened and never thought this would happen [sic].' Lyte later
claimed that the girl was in another world and that she did not report the texts
to the LTA because she was 'insecure and embarrassed'.
Lyte was charged with one count of
sexual assault against a minor. In March 2007, at Liverpool Crown Court, she
denied one count of sexual assault (relating to the incident in October 2005).
On May 18, 2007, she was charged with four more counts of sexual activity with a
child, again denying the charges.
The trial lasted two weeks, with Ms Lyte convicted on October
18, 2007.
Lyte's defense based their case around
the fact that if the allegations were not fabricated then the mother would have
informed the police earlier, and that she was merely being spiteful upon
learning that her daughter would not be as successful as previously thought.
Whilst being questioned by the prosecution, Lyte asserted that the mother had
persuaded her daughter to lie. Lyte also claimed to be heterosexual and three
confidants of the girl said that she had made a previous unfounded allegation of
rape against a male coach.
However, the overwhelming evidence against Lyte, including the
victim's compliance, led to a majority (10 to 2) verdict from the jury on four
of the five charges (she will not face retrial for the fifth). She was sentenced
on November 2, given a jail sentence of 2 years and 9 months and was also forced
to sign the sex offenders register.
Lyte's solicitor has confirmed that the
defence team are appealing.
The LTA has radically restructured its youth policy in light
of the case. It has abandoned its policy of running 14 academies around the
country, meaning children stay at home as their skills are nurtured. The case
itself mirrored a similar incident with a male coach in North London.
The girl's mother has been criticised for not reporting the
incident; whilst some believe she was over-ambitious and pushy towards her
daughter.
Elsewhere, some journalists have criticised tabloids for
highlighting the homosexual aspects of the affair, claiming it perpetuates a
culture of homophobia.
They said that the relationship should be refered to as paedophilic,
though it is technically ephebophilic.
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