A predatory teacher who admitted sexually exploiting a young girl was yesterday jailed for seven years.

Ronald Forde, 39, pleaded guilty in November to luring while in a position of trust, as well as sexual exploitation and accessing child pornography.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe said the defendant had committed a “trifecta” of sexual offences against the victim.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that he engaged in a long, deliberate and careful cultivation of the child victim with a view to engender trust and intimacy, all designed for sexual conduct between him and his child victim,” he said.

“His behaviours also include discourse that exploited the child victim’s curiosity and immaturity.

“To compound matters, his predatory behaviour worked because, as a result, the child victim sent a lewd video of herself and then went to his house, where he sexually exploited her.”

The judge, however, said he would take into account the defendant’s guilty plea, his previous clean record and his expressions of remorse.

He sentenced Forde to three years for luring, four years for sexual exploitation and two years for accessing child pornography.

However, he ordered the sexual exploitation sentence to run consecutively to the others, resulting in a total sentence of seven years behind bars — with the time he has already served taken into account.

Mr Justice Wolffe further ordered that Forde be placed on the registry of sexual offenders.

The victim in the case cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The court heard that the offences were uncovered by a brother of the victim, who last February had allowed her to use his phone to access the social-media app Instagram.

On March 4 last year, the brother changed the settings on the device and began to receive messages because the victim had not logged out of her Instagram account on the phone.

When he looked, he discovered a series of inappropriate messages, including a video, between his sister’s Instagram account and another person.

The family confronted the victim, who confessed that Forde had been the other contact, and the family alerted police and the school.

The student told police that the inappropriate conversations began in February 2024 and that, on March 2 that year, she had gone to Forde’s house, where the pair had kissed in his bedroom.

He was subsequently charged and pleaded guilty to the offences during a court hearing last November.

Media reports from Forde’s native Guyana showed that he was charged with engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old student in 2011.

The matter was discharged after a court ruling found that “paper committals” used in the case were unconstitutional.

Cindy Clarke, the Director of Public Prosecutions, at an earlier hearing said that Forde was the first person to be convicted in Bermuda for the offence of luring while in a position of trust, which was added to the Criminal Code in 2020.

She suggested that Forde be given a sentence of between ten and 12 years for sexual exploitation and luring, as well as a two-year consecutive sentence for accessing child pornography.

Ms Clarke also called for Forde to be added to the list of sexual offenders and raised the possibility of an application for a deportation order.

However, Elizabeth Christopher, for the defence, argued for a sentence of four years for sexual exploitation, two years for luring and one for accessing child pornography, all to run concurrently.

Forde himself apologised to the victim and her family at an earlier hearing, telling the court that he accepted full responsibility for what he described as a “gross act of betrayal”.

Delivering his sentence, Mr Justice Wolffe said: “Through his conduct, the defendant completed the trifecta of offences against children.

“He lured his victim, he sexually exploited his victim and he accessed child pornography depicting his victim. There are no words to describe the depths of his depravity.

“The deleterious effect that he might have on the child victim is yet unknown, but we can only hope that the child victim will thrive.”

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