A 65-year-old former East Sussex high school science teacher who groomed and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old pupil before raping her twice after she left school has been sentenced to nine years and nine months’ imprisonment at Brighton Crown Court.
Steven Hardie, residing at Woodsgate Park in Bexhill, East Sussex, appeared in the dock for sentence at Brighton Crown Court on Monday 26 October 2026 following an investigation by Sussex Police and a Crown Court jury trial at Lewes Crown Court.
The court heard that Hardie was employed as a science teacher at Bexhill High School—now known as Mulberry Academy Bexhill—between 1991 and 2007, when he was dismissed from his post after receiving a police caution for grooming a female pupil.
The current prosecution relates to a separate victim and was launched after Sussex Police received intelligence in 2021 indicating that Hardie had groomed and sexually abused pupils during his time teaching at the school. Officers seized Hardie’s electronic devices and discovered sexual messages exchanged between Hardie and a pupil during his tenure.
Detectives subsequently contacted the victim, now a woman in her 30s, who disclosed that Hardie had subjected her to sexual abuse beginning when she was aged 15, and reported that he had raped her on two occasions after she had left the school.
Hardie was arrested and charged with two counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault, and three counts of indecency with a child. Following a trial at Lewes Crown Court concluding on Tuesday 25 August 2026, a jury found Hardie guilty on eight of the nine charges:
Two counts of rape (guilty)
Four counts of indecent assault (guilty)
Two counts of indecency with a child (guilty; acquitted on one further count of indecency with a child)
Under the provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, the survivor in this case is protected by mandatory, lifelong statutory anonymity from the moment an allegation is made. Any publication, broadcast, or public dissemination of information capable of leading to her identification is strictly prohibited under UK law.
Passing sentence at Brighton Crown Court on Monday 26 October, the presiding judge imposed an immediate custodial sentence of nine years and nine months’ imprisonment, ordered Hardie to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life, and made him subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) alongside a formal restraining order against his victims.
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