Former Rustburg Middle teacher sentenced

RUSTBURG — A former Rustburg Middle School teacher was sentenced to two years in prison Thursday in Campbell County Circuit Court after he admitted he asked two young girls to have sex with him.

At least one of the girls, a 13-year-old, had been one of Matthew Collins’ sixth-grade physical education students, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sally Steel told the court.

The other girl was 14 and a former student at the middle school, Steel said.

Collins, 27, was in his fifth year as a physical education teacher for fifth- and sixth-grade students at the school when he was arrested in March.

Steel said a county sheriff’s office investigator learned the relationship with the younger of the two girls started in January. Collins admitted to giving the girl his phone number and exchanging hundreds of text messages, “including plans for them to meet and have sex.”

Steel said the two did meet at a local church and kissed, although there was no sexual contact that would have justified more charges.

He also told police about the second relationship, she said.

Collins had been scheduled for a trial Thursday, but pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent liberties with a child under 15 in a plea and sentencing agreement. He had faced two additional charges of electronic solicitation that would have carried five-year mandatory-minimum sentences, Steel said.

She said the agreement, which called for dropping the two solicitation charges, kept the girls from having to testify while protecting the public.

“He’s lost his career, and he’s going to have to start over,” she told the judge.

Collins’ lawyer, Jim Hunter, said his client had been seeing a therapist since his arrest.

Judge John Cook sentenced Collins to 10 years in prison on each charge, with all but a year suspended on each. The sentences will be consecutive for an active sentence of two years.

The sentence also included five years of supervision when he is released from prison and an order that he must register as a sex offender. He was ordered to have no contact with the victims. The order also stipulates that he may not coach, teach or counsel anyone under 18 and may not have contact with anyone under 18 unless the child is a family member.