Firmage is now devoting his considerable energies - and even more considerable

Firmage is now devoting his considerable energies - and even more considerable private fortune - to the proposition that cutting-edge physics will soon be able to prove the existence of UFOs and provide the technology to visit alien civilisations billions of light years away. Freed from the day-to-day drudgery of negotiating corporate mergers and tracking USWeb's spiralling stock price, Firmage has set up a research body called the International Space Sciences Organisation, which will be based in a brand-new office suite in Palo Alto on the northern fringe of Silicon Valley. The reasons for his departure have nothing to do with boardroom intrigue or corporate strategy. Rather, they have everything to do with little pointy-headed creatures from other galaxies. Last November he resigned as USWeb's chief executive officer and last month he stepped down as the company's chief strategist. But none of those achievements seem to matter much now that Firmage, at the ripe old age of 28, has discovered The Truth.

She has now decided that she never wants to go into a classroom and face the same risk.". Until recently, the only remarkable thing about Joe Firmage was his stratospheric success as a computer entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He started his first company at 18, became a multi-millionaire at 23, co-founded the Internet consulting firm USWeb at 25 and helped turn it into a $2.1bn company with clients including Apple, Levi Strauss and Harley Davidson. It's on my record that I was investigated for raping a pupil. And anyway why would I do it again? Why would I put myself in a position where someone could get one over on me by making a false complaint. But I am going to fight on until my name is completely cleared.My daughter was training to be a teacher when this happened.

I used to earn pounds 25,000, now I get a pension of pounds 8,000. This has effectively wiped out any career that I might now have as a social worker, a psychologist or a teacher. Even once I was vindicated, they never made any attempt to apologise.I hardly go out at all now even though we don't live in Stockport itself. I keep having this dream that I'm walking down the street and people that I worked with for years start shouting `you dirty bastard' after me.I'm on anti-depressants. Of the team of six that I worked in, three colleagues were very, very supportive The other two just turned their backs on me. Some of them worked with kids I taught so the news got back to them When I went into school everyone seemed to know about it.