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Retired father-of-two teacher, 52, takes 18-year-old former pupil as his fourth wife (and leaves her family horrified)

By Neil Sears and Deborah Sherwood
Last updated at 3:30 PM on 15th January 2011

• Father-of-two set up home with her while still married to third wife

Defiance: Clive Richards, 52, with 18-year-old Jessica Anderson

A retired religious education teacher has married for the fourth time – to an 18-year-old former pupil. Grey-haired father-of-two Clive Richards, 52, set up home with deputy head girl Jessica Anderson when she was only 16.

He was still married to his third wife at the time, and Jessica’s parents were horrified that she was involved with a man old enough to be her grandfather. But the pair continued with the relationship, and married in a low-key register office ceremony in Torbay, Devon, in September.

Yesterday a defiant Mr Richards said: ‘Yes, we’re married. We’ve been married for ages but it’s no one’s business but ours.’ His bride added: ‘It’s none of your business.’ Her mother and stepfather, however, were clearly upset at the development, and said they had no contact with her.

They were not invited to the wedding. The relationship was uncovered in 2008 when Jessica, who was just months away from sitting her GCSEs, failed to return to her £575,000 family home after school.

She sent worried mother Frances Hichens, 41, an e-mail saying she had fallen in love and moved in with her former teacher in the same village, Goldsithney near Penzance, Cornwall. Mr Richards’ third wife Julia, 40, left him just three days before the schoolgirl took her place.

She took one of the couple’s two sons with her, but the other, 14-year-old Benjamin, was left behind and found himself with a step-mother just two years his senior.

At the time, Mrs Hichens, a hospital clerk, said she and her second husband Phil, 50, a property developer, were ‘living a nightmare’. She contacted police, pointing out that it is an offence for an adult in a position of trust to have sex with an under-18 in his charge.



Holiday snap: The couple say their relationship is no one's business but their own

But officers told her that as Mr Richards had left Mounts Bay comprehensive school the previous year – going on long-term sick leave with depression – he had committed no crime. And because Jessica was 16, she could decide where to live.

Jessica’s father, taxi driver Steven Anderson, 44, who is separated from her mother, was also appalled by the relationship.

And Mr Richards’ third wife, a teaching assistant, claimed that he had also flirted and secretly met up with another 16-year-old pupil at the school, and that she had become suspicious about his friendship with Jessica when she was still 15.

She added: ‘I can’t believe a schoolgirl is now living in my house with my husband. ‘What they are doing may be legal, but it is morally wrong.’



Divorce: Mr Richards' third wife Julia, 40, left him three days before the schoolgirl took her place

Shortly before setting up home with his schoolgirl lover, Mr Richards had begun training to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a vicar – but stopped when some churchgoers became concerned at his behaviour. He then went on benefits.

He said at the time: ‘We have both been questioned by the police child protection team as well as by social services. 'However, as a matter of law, we have done nothing wrong.’

Jessica insisted nothing happened between them at school, and that they only began emailing each other later after a suggestion from his son Benjamin, who she knew from the playground.

She said: ‘Clive did not set out to seduce me or capture me, whatever anyone may think. ‘We are just a normal couple who happen to have an age gap between us. I can be criminally responsible at the age of 14, yet at 16 no one thinks I have a mind of my own.’

Soon after she set up home with her former teacher, they moved away from her family and now share a rented Victorian cottage in Torquay, Devon, with Mr Richards’ son Benjamin, now 16.

Jessica, now 19, described herself as a student on her wedding certificate, and is understood to be studying law.

Last night her step-father, Phil Hichens, said: ‘We have no contact at all with them. Apparently they got married last year.’