School Teacher Got Sex Kick From Sniffing Pupils’ Sweaty Feet, Not Jailed

Martyne Airey, 51, a primary school teacher from Blackburn. England, encouraged his pupils to play a game he called “sniff and tickle.”

The children had to remove their shoes, and select a card from a deck. Then, depending upon which card was chosen, Airey would either sniff of tickle the soles of their feet. His sexual stimulation came from smelling really sweaty feet.

The Lancashire Telegraph reported that, at the hearing in Preston Crown Court, it was revealed that he was eventually caught after causing the children to be late for other classes, and teachers complained. The pupils described to them what had happened in his class.

Following Airey’s arrest, police discovered a voice recorder in his bedroom which featured a young boy reading a story about a woman and her dirty socks. The police also checked Airey’s iPhone which showed that he had visited foot fetish websites.

Prior to his suspension from the school, Airey had worked for 18 years as a teacher. He pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual assault on a child under 13. He received a prison sentence of 15 months, but it was suspended for two years, meaning no jail time for the moment. He was also instructed to sign on to the Sex Offender’s Register. Judge Newell placed Airey on a two-year supervision order, saying:

“I can fully understand why any reasonable parent would feel affronted and distressed by what you, a teacher, have done to their children. Parents place great trust in teachers. They expect them to be looked after. You abused that trust and it is a high degree of trust.”

Airey’s defense counsel, Tina Landale, said in mitigation that her client had to care for his elderly mother and brother. She continued:

“Mr Airey sits before you a man with a reputation in tatters. He is ashamed of himself. He is disgraced and feels a great sense of revulsion as to what has happened.

“He cannot really explain how he let himself become involved in this except to say that he enjoyed his teaching career, enjoyed the contact with the children.

“He is described as a likeable teacher who got on well with people and for some inexplicable reason, he allowed himself to start playing this so-called game with a number of children at the school.”

It is indeed sad that Airey, who was by all accounts a good teacher, had this obsession with sweaty feet.

Objectively, while it’s true that his actions were strange, there was no accusation that he ever touched the children in any other way, and the children regarded it just as a game, being too young to ascribe any other meaning to the acts.

The problem in the UK is that have been so many high-profile court cases recently of celebrities engaging in under-age sex, that the word “pedophile” is the proverbial “red rag” to the media. The answer to the question of whether what Martyne Airey did will have any long term effects on his pupils is probably “no.”