A 41-year-old teaching assistant left a schoolboy suicidal after flirting with him, trying to kiss him and touching him on the leg while working at a special needs school.
Mother-of-two Susan Ayres encouraged the teenager, who suffered from a tremor, to take his shirt off during a gym class and held his hand on a trip to Weston-super-Mare during a month-long relationship.
She was handed a 12-week jail sentence suspended for 18 months and made to sign the sex offenders register for seven years after telling the 17-year-old: ‘You’re sexy, you taste delicious.’
Susan Ayres was placed on the sex offenders register after her advances toward the pupil who had a tremor
Ayres even accepted a Haribo ring in a mock proposal from the pupil following the breakdown of her marriage.
The Wiltshire teaching assistant, who has reunited with her husband, said ‘ I love you’ in messages to the teenager, who told police he had to pause his Playstation due to the frequency of her texts.
Ayres tried to kiss the boy on the lips when they went for a drive, Prosecutor Pauline Lambert told the court.
‘After an incident with his dad, he’d gone for a drive with Ms Ayres,’ she said.
‘When they went for drives, she said they had to be careful because she didn’t want to get caught.
‘He says he felt sorry for her so he kissed her hand.’
Ayres, of Swindon in Wiltshire, touched the boy on the leg while he was clothed, magistrates heard.
She also encouraged him to take his top off as his friend had done during a gym trip.
The boy said the ordeal left him suicidal in a witness statement.
‘I walked into roads about five or six times,’ he said. ‘I had just had enough of it all.’
The boy, who left notes on Ayres’ class board at the start of the school year, was left in need of counselling.
He was ‘too scared’ to tell teachers about the relationship, which was discovered by a member of staff.
Swindon Magistrates’ Court heard how the 17-year-old was left suicidal after the teaching assistant’s advances
Ayres was ordered to complete 80 hours of community service after appearing at Swindon Magistrates’ Court.
Defending, Cathy Thornton said Ayres was at a low point personally and professionally at the time of the relationship.
She described Ayres as a ‘lady separated from her husband, struggling to cope emotionally’.
Ayres was also ordered to undertake 30 days of rehabilitation with the probation service, pay £85 court costs and a £115 victim surcharge.