Class assistant, 30,who seduced boy half her age
A TEACHING assistant who had sex with a schoolboy half her age has escaped a jail sentence.
Caroline Berriman, 30, seduced the boy last year when he was just 15. She admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child and was yesterday handed a suspended two - year sentence.
Berriman confessed to starting the affair with the teenager while working at Abraham Moss Community School in North Manchester. She was immediately suspended from the 1,600-pupil school following the allegations and no longer works there.
She took part in sex acts with the teenager, Manchester Crown Court was told. She was first hauled before the court in July, but the case was adjourned when she fell ill.
As well as the suspended sentence, she faces 250 hours of unpaid community work.
Berriman, from Oldham, must also obey a restraining order prohibiting her from contacting the boy – who cannot be named for legal reasons. He did not attend court and has now left the school.
Headmistress Gillian Houghton said: ‘Safeguarding pupils is a number one priority for us.’
Last year, the Department for Education revealed that two teachers a month were banned from the profession for having inappropriate relationships with pupils.
In November, married teaching assistant Helen Turnbull, 35, from Durham, received a suspended sentence after kiss- ing a boy of 16 and sending him seductive messages.
The Mail revealed how she then began a relationship with another former pupil from the same Roman Catholic school.
In 2014, teaching assistant Char- lotte Parker, 32, admitted sending thousands of lewd messages to a pupil at a school in Chelmsford, Essex, aged just 14, with whom she later had an affair when he was 16.
Married English teacher Yvonne Preston, 49, of West Yorkshire, was banned from the profession for becoming infatuated with a pupil and showering him with gifts.