Baby oil, handcuffs and saucy texts from teacher, 53 ‘who slept with pupil’
A TeACher accused of having sex with a pupil sent images of baby oil and handcuffs to a friend while discussing the ‘merits of an older woman’, a court heard yesterday.
Deborah lowe, 53, received a WhatsApp message from her friend reading: ‘We can’t all have a 17-year to s**g,’ the jury was told.
in response, the former British Airways hostess wrote: ‘Can i just say for the minute i am not s******g him and i am merely a mother figure.
‘however if in the not too distant future he wants to discuss the merits of an older woman i will be there for him.’
her friend wrote: ‘yummy. Can’t say i blame you,’ and lowe replied with emojis of a bottle of baby lotion and a pair of handcuffs.
She told the jury it was a jokey conversation as her friend knew she had not been in a relationship or slept with a man for nine years.
She is accused of engaging in sexual
‘I was having some sort of midlife crisis’
activity with the boy when he was a 15year-old pupil at the school where she was in charge of pastoral care.
She denied that she had slept with him when the messages were sent in October 2016, saying they had sex for the first time two months later at her flat when he was 17 and had left the school.
lowe told the jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court she was ‘having some sort of midlife crisis’ when she slept with the teenager.
The divorced mother-of-two added she was ‘ ashamed’ about the relationship, which she described as ‘passionate and a little rough’.
lowe said the relationship became ‘flirtier’ after the boy left the school. ‘i was flattered that he called me baby cakes – it was silly,’ she added.
‘i was flattered by the attention and flirting that a middle-aged woman had been called baby cakes by a younger man.’
She told the court she first slept with the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in December 2016 at her flat. ‘ he said he missed me, he had been thinking about me a lot,’ she said. ‘Then we kissed, and then i am very embarrassed to say that we ended up in bed together, which i regret.’
her barrister, Neil Usher, asked her: ‘What do think now about a lady of your age having sex with a young man of that age?’
She replied: ‘i’m mortified. i’m embarrassed. i think i was having some sort of midlife crisis. i have never done anything like that before. i don’t know why i did it. i am so ashamed.’
She said they next had sex four months later at his family home while his mother was out, and then about ‘ half a dozen times’ in June last year at her static caravan in poynton, Cheshire.
Justin hayhoe, prosecuting, asked her why she had signed a card she gave to the boy ‘love you lots and lots, the slut’. lowe replied: ‘Because when we had sex it was passionate and a little rough and he called me his slut.
‘it was only looking back i was mortified and embarrassed. At that time i was flattered that he had shown me attention.’
Mr hayhoe also accused lowe of bombarding the teenager with late-night sex calls and text messages. The court heard that in May 2016, she sent him 171 texts. lowe said she only sent sex texts to him after they had first slept together in December that year and denied ever sending him a photograph of her breasts.
Mr hayhoe said lowe was ‘infatuated with this boy and chased after him’.
She replied that she had only phoned him to help him find a job.
lowe denies five counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust between April 2015 and June 2016. On Thursday, the jury was directed to return a not guilty verdict on a separate count of engaging in sexual activity with a child.
The trial continues.