Former teacher, 38, and his student teen bride are pictured together for the first time since marrying last year in a ‘quickie’ wedding after scandal that almost sent him to prison

Pictured for the first time together this is the Alabama student and teacher who married in what prosecutors branded a cynical sham to keep him out of prison.

It is just three months since the case against Matthew Wester was thrown out of court in a scandal that destroyed his first marriage, divided student Amy Cox’s family and outraged the Alabama community of Oneonta in which both lived.


Despite the court ruling that, as a victim, Amy, now 19, could be compelled to testify against her 38-year-old former teacher regardless of the marriage, prosecutors’ failure to find and serve her with a subpoena saw the court forced to dismiss the contentious case which relied almost entirely on her testimony.
Now these exclusive pictures obtained by Daily Mail Online show the couple together for the first time, as Wester settles into life free from the threat of jail.

The couple, who married in a ‘quickie’ ceremony in Gulf Shores, Alabama, in June 2015 have just celebrated their first anniversary and, according to sources close to them, are determined to prove that their relationship is the real deal.
District Attorney Pamela Casey has made no secret of her fervent belief that this marriage is a manipulation by Wester designed solely to keep him out of jail.

Court paper seen by Daily Mail Online assert the prosecution’s belief, ‘Clearly, if a 38 year-old teacher can induce an 18 year-old student to engage in sexual contact with him and to subsequently marry him, he can persuade “one who has already fallen victim to his influence that she must also protect him”.’
But Amy has told friends that theirs is a true marriage and their relationship one of husband and wife not accused and victim.

According to the source: ‘The past year has been hell for them. They’ve had this case hanging over them and Matthew has obviously had to make a new career for himself so he’s been working all hours. 
‘He’s been leaving the house at 5am and not getting home till six, seven o’clock. But they really have a very quiet, normal life now. They go to work, they come home and they eat dinner. That’s it.

‘They’ve said that if they didn’t have each other they’d never have made it but everything that has happened has only made them stronger.