Pictured: Natalie Warner. Her experience is far from an isolated one
To celebrate her 17th birthday, Natalie Warner’s parents did what many others do, and bought their daughter driving lessons as a gift.
As she sat behind the wheel for the first time with her instructor, a married, middle-aged man, Natalie felt nervous, but also excited about learning to drive.
However, any apprehension about getting behind the wheel was quickly replaced by feelings of unease due to the increasingly inappropriate behaviour of her tutor.
‘At first things were fine,’ says Natalie, now a 19-year-old university student. ‘But he started to say how pretty he thought I was. It made me really uncomfortable. It wasn’t appropriate and I was trying to concentrate.
‘He then started to talk in a sexual way about the gear stick. I was repulsed. I tried to focus on learning to drive but he kept leaning over and tickling me in the ribs and he put his hand on my thigh to caress it. I felt really vulnerable as I was alone with him.’
As shocking as this behaviour was, Natalie’s experience is far from an isolated one. In the past year alone, complaints of sexually inappropriate behaviour were made against 246 instructors — a threefold increase since 2015 when there were 75 complaints. Like Natalie, many do not report their experiences, meaning the true figure could be far higher.
In March, Martyn Rees, a 37-year-old instructor, was convicted of 20 sexual offences including rape, attempted sexual assault of a pupil during a lesson and secretly filming intimate parts of his young female students during driving lessons in Manchester.
In September, Neil Addison, 55, of Fife, was jailed for four years for sexually abusing 14 female students while they were behind the wheel of his car. In December 2017, 64-year-old Gary Rolinson’s jail term for abusing male students was increased from four to five years after more teenage victims came forward to say he had abused them during lessons in Dudley, in the West Midlands.
And in 2015, Southampton driving instructor Stephen Mason, 59, admitted sexually assaulting two teenage pupils, 17 and 19, and was jailed for 32 months.
So why don’t more women report the unwanted, sleazy advances of their instructors? Part of the reason is many, like Natalie, feel under pressure to continue with lessons because they are often paid for in a block. It was a significant financial investment of several hundred pounds to which she had helped contribute with earnings from her waitressing job.
‘I was shocked by the way he was behaving. I tried to laugh it off. I wish I’d reported him now,’ says Natalie.
Living in a rural village in Scotland, she knew driving would be her lifeline, so she just tried to get through it.
In the end, Natalie, who is studying for an accountancy degree with the Open University, had nine lessons before she could endure no more. The experience put her off driving for a year before she resumed lessons a few months ago with a new instructor, who is male, but has helped restore her confidence.
Why don’t more women report the unwanted, sleazy advances of their instructors? (stock image)
‘I was really affected by what happened and nervous about learning again, but I have started to enjoy my lessons and hope to pass soon.’
Of course, the majority of driving instructors behave with utmost professionalism and decency, but being alone with someone in a car for hours at a time is an intimate experience and can be open to exploitation and abuse.
And with only a fifth (22 per cent) of the UK’s 39,000 instructors being female, more often than not, young learners will be taught by a man.
So what safeguards are in place to protect them?
By law, all driving instructors have to apply to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to join its Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) register. This means they have to be over 21, pass motoring conviction checks and enhanced background checks, be able to read a licence plate at 90ft (27.5 metres) and have a full driving licence.
In March, Martyn Rees, a 37-year-old instructor, was convicted of 20 sexual offences including rape
They also have to be a ‘fit and proper person’ and adhere to a code of conduct requiring them to behave professionally and responsibly, to avoid ‘inappropriate language’ and ‘circumstances and situations which are, or could be, perceived to be of an inappropriate nature’.
Anyone who feels their instructor has breached this can report them to the DVSA and they can ultimately be struck off.
As a DVSA spokesman says: ‘Driving instructors found to be threatening the safety of learners will be removed from the register and stopped from teaching.’
But how often does this actually happen? Of the 246 current complaints, just ten instructors have been removed from the register, while 135 complaints are still ongoing. And due to insufficient evidence, 23 were given warnings but allowed to carry on teaching.
As a result of the increasing number of complaints, there are growing calls for instructors to be held to the same standards as academic teachers, meaning any sexual contact would automatically be a criminal offence. Many would also like to see cameras installed in cars.
Victoria Myers, a partner and head of abuse claims at Manchester-based Graham Coffey & Co solicitors, says she is coming across an increasing number of cases where pupils are not happy with their instructor’s behaviour. She says: ‘Driving instructors need to have the same duty of care as teachers and social workers.
‘They have care over some young people who, at the age of 17 or 18, can be very vulnerable. Cameras in the cars should be a must for every instructor as it gives them and their pupils a sense of protection.’
Of the 246 current complaints, just ten instructors have been removed from the register, while 135 complaints are still ongoing (stock image)
Sarah Morris, 26, a
