School helper jailed for sex with boy
A TEACHING assistant has been jailed for having sex with a vulnerable 15-year-old boy.
Kellie Louise Smith, 28, sobbed as a court heard she groomed the boy with sweets and “extra attention”.
Mother-of-one Smith bought the youngster cannabis, cocaine and drink before having sex with him at a Holiday Inn Express hotel last March.
Warwick Crown Court was told the pair had earlier shared “flirty banter” on the school minibus.
The assistant did not turn up at the Coventry school the next morning and the boy’s mother alerted senior staff after discovering what had happened.
Smith pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of sexual activity with a child. Sentencing her to 32 months, Recorder Martin Butterworth told
Smith: “The fact accepted by the prosecution that he consented and you weren’t abusing him against his will makes no difference at all to the fact you took advantage of a vulnerable child to satisfy your own sexual needs.
“The victim was in your care. You had received the appropriate training for vulnerable children.
Smith, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, who was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, will serve half her sentence on licence.
Recorder Butterworth accepted a psychiatrist’s report saying Smith was immature and naive and had depression and mild learning difficulties, but told her: “None of this can excuse the way you abused the trust the school placed in you and the trust the parents placed in you.”
“The victim has said it affected him and he is embarrassed.”
Andrew Tucker, defending, said Smith had been at a “low ebb” after a failed relationship.
He told the court: “I ask you to take into account that she is a mother with a young daughter of four years of age and is not currently living with her.
“Her own stupid actions now could impact on her daughter.
“Having battled depression after leaving school without qualifications she managed to get a position as a teaching assistant.
“It shows she has a great deal of responsibility. She let herself down and her head teacher down by what happened last year.”