The teaching assistant who ‘groomed boy of 12 for sex with sweets and cuddles’
A MARRIED teaching assistant had an affair with a pupil after grooming him from the age of 12 with sweets and cuddles, a court heard yesterday.
Helen Turnbull, now 35, left her husband when she started a secret relationship with the schoolboy, the jury was told.
During their brief affair, the pair are said to have used the adult’s Mini for liaisons after she sent provocative pictures of herself in her underwear.
When the boy reached 16, Turnbull, a mother-of-two, also sent a message to him demanding ‘power sex’ and changed her Facebook profile picture to one of her posing with the boy, the court heard.
But when the pupil started ‘going cold’ on the relationship, she turned up at his home and confronted his father.
Turnbull’s husband first became suspicious about his wife’s behaviour on the night of her Roman Catholic secondary school’s prom last year.
She arrived home ‘really drunk’ and changed her Facebook profile picture from one featuring her three-year- old daughter to an image of her and the schoolboy.
In the days after the incident Turnbull’s husband accused her of having an affair and their relationship began to break down, prosecutor Sarah Mallett told Teesside Crown Court. She was later challenged about the pictures by the headmaster at her Durham school because of the ‘provocative’ outfit she was wearing at the prom.
But she explained there was ‘nothing to worry about’ and said several teachers had pictures taken with pupils at the event.
The pair first met when the boy joined the school at the age of 12, and Turnbull would reward him with cuddles and sweets. When he turned 16 they allegedly started a sexual relationship.
On only their second meeting outside the classroom they are said to have kissed before having
‘He called her a paedophile’
sex and smoking cigarettes in Turnbull’s car. They met twice more during the summer holiday, allegedly having sex both times.
At the start of the following term Turnbull was challenged by the head, who had become aware of rumours sparked by the Facebook picture of the pair.
Miss Mallett said: ‘She told the head there was nothing to worry about, that she had not had any external communication with him electronically or by social media and that all the teachers were getting pictures taken with students on that day.’ After the pupil’s father became suspicious, Mrs Turnbull confronted him. Miss Mallett said: ‘He called her a paedophile and she said “it is not like that” but he was too angry to listen.
‘He was insulted by the fact she was wearing a minidress. He told her to leave his son alone and to stop threatening him.’
After Turnbull, from Haswell, County Durham, was arrested police found a message to the pupil on her mobile stating: ‘I want my promised power sex.’
The court heard that when the fleeting relationship came to an end, Turnbull used a teenage friend as a go-between to try to win the schoolboy back.
Describing their first meeting, Miss Mallett said: ‘She began to pay him more attention than other pupils and would reward him for good work with cuddles and sweets.She spoke to him about his personal life as well as his work and told him about her personal life. This was the first stage of the grooming process.’
Turnbull admits one charge of sexual activity with a child, relating to kissing the victim. She denies three further charges between June and July last year.
Miss Mallett said: ‘There is no suggestion the boy did not consent. These offences arise because of the need to protect children from exploitative relationships with teachers who have trusted roles that can allow them to groom youngsters in their care.’
The trial continues.