A DISGRACED Quinton teacher who went to work in Africa breaching of a court order imposed for sexual activity with a 16-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed for 9 months.

Judge John Warner told Conrad Abenaty: "It was a quite deliberate decision by you to flout the law," after he squandered

the chance of keeping his freedom.

Abenaty had been given a three year Community Order and told to register as a Sex Offender with a number of strict conditions for the offence involving the schoolgirl.

But having first obeyed the order he failed to keep two appointments with his Supervisor and he then left the United Kingdom to take up the role of deputy headmaster at a school in Cameroon.

"He was given a chance by the court and for a long time he took that chance," said Mr Simon Hunka defending who stressed Abenaty was not a lothario but someone who had been involved in a "single inappropriate" incident.

Mr Hunka described Abenaty as an "intelligent, articulate, highly educated" man who had made 179 unsuccesful applications for work after his court appearance.

Then, when he was given the opportunity to work in Cameroon, he grabbed it with both hands but in the end it did not work out.

Mr Hunka said: "He was so unhappy with the way things were here and he took the wrong decision.

"He failed to heed the advice he had been given."

He told Wolverhampton Crown Court that after returning to the United Kingdom Abenaty had applied for a further 38 jobs but they

too had not met with success and that had left him at a "very low ebb."

Abenaty, of Hagley Road West, admitted three breaches of the order and it was revoked the Judge who ruled he would

now have to serve a term of imprisonment.

"You left the country when you were told not to do so," said the judge at Wolverhampton Crown Court.