Chris Leatham

Chris Leatham was the teacher in charge of overseeing exams when Todd Grimshaw sat his first day of A-levels in June 2003. Todd had a chance to go to Oxford University and had made plans to go and live there with girlfriend Sarah Louise Platt and her baby daughter Bethany but she had come to the conclusion that they would be a burden to his academic career and, allied to pressure from Todd’s mother Eileen, had finished their relationship. Chris ordered the hall full of students to turn over their papers and begin but Todd, after sullenly writing his name, just doodled on the paper. After a while, he came to a conclusion, got up and walked out of the room. Chris followed asking if he was unwell. Todd answered with a grin that he’d never felt better. Sarah asked for a moment alone with him which Chris granted and she tried to persaude him to return but he refused, saying his future was with her and not Oxford or a career as a lawyer. Chris told Sarah to return to her exam while Todd made his way home and broke the news of his decision to his mother.