A teacher who featured in Channel 4’s hit documentary series Educating Cardiff “giggled” as he allegedly sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl, a court has heard.
Gareth Ritter played a prominent role in the series as assistant headteacher at Willows High School.
Ritter is now standing trial at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl after offering her a lift home from an event in 2015.
The 44-year-old, from Great Tyrmynach Farm in Monmouthshire, has pleaded not guilty.
Ritter allegedly told the girl he needed to make a brief stop to check a flat he owned in Cardiff Bay, saying it would take “five minutes”.
The court heard that he took the girl inside the property and showed her the view from its balcony.
He then allegedly made comments about the dress she was wearing.
Gareth Ritter featured prominently in the documentary series Educating Cardiff as assistant headteacher at Willows High School. He has now appeared at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, where he is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
Ritter outside Merthyr Crown Court. The 44-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl at a Cardiff Bay flat in June 2015.
Ritter then allegedly touched the girl, who was not a pupil at his school, without her permission.
She told the court: “He mentioned his wife did not know about the flat and he liked to keep his money separate. He made several comments about how I looked.”
Ritter allegedly said, “Look at your t**s,” before beginning to giggle and moving his hand to touch her.
She continued: “He put his right hand on my lower back and moved down to my bum.”
The court heard that Ritter then asked whether she wanted to see the bedroom and went inside.
The girl told the jury that she did not follow him. When he came back out, she alleged that he touched her again and put his tongue inside her mouth.
She said: “My back was towards the wall and Gareth was in front of me.”
Ritter allegedly reached one hand behind her back and down towards her bum before leaning in and kissing the teenager.
“I remember his tongue going into my mouth. I was against the wall and could not step back,” she added.
“I turned my face away. I couldn’t go anywhere.”
The court heard that she held out her hands and told him: “I don’t do this. I am a good girl.”
Pictured: Ritter during his appearence on Educating Cardiff
‘I felt really uncomfortable. I had nowhere to go. I found it hard to say stop and did not know how to react.’
Ritter allegedly agreed to take her home but told her to keep what happened ‘between us’.
She told the court that Ritter asked her ‘are you going to tell anyone?’.
‘What do you say in that situation? He was someone I looked up to. How do you confront that? Do I argue with someone giving me a lift home?’ she said.
On Wednesday, September 30, the court was told that in a separate Crown Court case on December 23, 2024 Ritter had pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing and one of distributing indecent images of the then 17-year-old who later reported him over the alleged sexual assault.
Prosecutor Andrew Davies told Wednesday’s hearing that Ritter lied to police in a first interview after the complainant reported him in 2022 over the alleged 2015 sexual assault.
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She reported the matter after police informed her that they had found indecent images of her on Ritter’s phone and that he had shared them.
The images had been taken consensually with the complainant and her partner in 2015 before the alleged sexual assault by Ritter.
However, the images had been shared without either of their permission or knowledge, the court had already heard.
The complainant told police she was unaware Ritter had the explicit images of her, Merthyr Crown Court was told.
When she reported in 2022 that Ritter had sexually assaulted her in the flat in June 2015, the former teacher was interviewed by police in October that year.
During this interview, the transcript of which was read out in court, Ritter denied owning a flat in Cardiff Bay, taking the complainant there, or giving her a lift home on the date she claimed he assaulted her there.
‘I don’t own a flat. I have never owned a flat,’ he told police in the interview read out in court.
Ritter won the Pearson Teaching Awardfor innovative use of technology in 2013
Asked why he thought the complainant would report him for sexual assault he replied: ‘I can only think she’s really annoyed about those photos. Knowing they got out when she thought they were only in a small group of people.’
He also told officers he had been a teacher for 22 years and denied claims he had called the teenager ‘fit and sexy’ in front of other people.
After further investigation Ritter was interviewed again on December 13, 2023.
It was at this point he told police that he did have a flat in Cardiff Bay and had taken the complainant there on the date, as alleged, but denied sexually assaulting her there.
Ritter claimed to police that he had told the 17-year-old she could wait in the car outside while he spent five minutes checking the flat while he was giving her a lift home from an evening event in Cardiff.
Instead she chose to go up with him, he said.
‘What [the complainant] suggested happened just did not,’ Ritter told police.
‘That’s just not me. I would not.’
Asked by the officer why he did not give a full account in the first interview the year before, Ritter does not respond with an explanation.
‘This is a bit of a change of direction,’ the police officer suggested to Ritter in the transcript of the second interview read out at the hearing on Wednesday.
A friend of the complainant spoke to the court later in the hearing. She said the complainant had also alleged to her that Ritter had sexually assaulted her at the flat in June 2015.
The friend said she had suggested that the complainant tell someone, but she was too worried she wouldn’t be believed.
Asked by the court why she thought the complainant had not reported it at the time, and why she herself had also not told anyone, the friend said: ‘I tried to tell [the complainant] she should tell someone but she was too worried and scared and I had to respect her wishes.’
She said: ‘We were young and he [Ritter] had a career and power and connections and a much louder voice.’
Jenny Yeo, defending, said Ritter denies kissing or touching the 17-year-old.
She said: ‘Nothing at all untoward happened in the flat that night.’
Ritter worked as a music teacher and assistant head during the Channel 4 show and in 2013, he won the Pearson award for innovative use of technology.
The trial continues.
