Teaching assistant, 23, jailed for sexually abusing student, 14

A teaching assistant “wept” in court as she was convicted of sexually abusing a teen boy who attended the school she worked in.

A British teaching assistant wept in court as she was jailed for six years for sexually abusing a 14-year-old pupil in a discount retailer car park.

Hannah Harris, 23 – who worked at a school in Hoddesdon, Greater London – posed as the mum of her victim’s fake girlfriend to hide their relationship.

But on Wednesday, Harris was jailed for six years after being found guilty of sexual activity with a child, The Sun reports.

The ex-teaching assistant had denied the charges. Her dad Jason had claimed his daughter “just wanted to help” when she started working at the school in 2018.

She was found guilty on three of four counts of sexual activity with a child charges laid against her that occurred between of in December 2019 and January 2020.

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Hannah Harris, 23, jailed for six years after being found guilty of three charges of ‘sexual activity with a child’. Picture: Facebook

Harris had sex with the boy in a car park for British discount store Wilko after posing as the mum of his fictional girlfriend – who she named “Kayla” – to speak to his parents.

She said her name was Olivia and she lived in Baldock, Hertfordshire, St Albans Crown Court heard.

In one text Harris wrote: “Seems Kayla and …(the boy) are getting on well, so I am happy to ferry them around.”

Harris was caught in January 2020 when the boy’s older brother found out.

The boy admitted “Olivia” and “Kayla” were fictional.

Prosecutor Simon Wilshire told St Albans Crown Court: “Both parents believed they had spoken to Olivia on the phone and his mum had exchanged texts.”

“When the parents became aware, they realised they had unwittingly facilitated the contact.

“They had been duped by the boy into the belief he was seeing someone of his own age.”

He went on: “As a teaching assistant at his school she (Harris) would have known his age – such activity is a criminal offence regardless of whether he believed himself to be a willing party.”

He added that she had shown no remorse for the offence when she was interviewed by a probation officer for a pre-sentence report.

Harris was first employed in the school’s IT department in 2018 and became a teaching assistant a year later.

The court heard she sent texts to her victim’s parents pretending to be the mum of a fictional girlfriend. Picture: Facebook

‘Devastating’ crimes

Sentencing Harris today, Judge Caroline Wigin told her: “Your conduct has had a devastating effect upon the life of that young man.”

She found that Harris’s behaviour was an “abuse of trust”, “constituted grooming” and involved “significant planning”.

“I find that you disregarded all the warnings that you had,” Judge Wigin said.

“You were well aware, I find, that his messages should have been screenshotted by you and reported to senior staff. You did not do that.”

Harris began sobbing as the judge handed down the sentence.

Before the sentencing, Julia Flanagan, defending, argued that the messages and trips had not been geared specifically towards facilitating a sexual relationship with the boy.

Judge Wigin cut in, saying: “It is utterly inappropriate to form any relationship of any kind,” before adding that Harris would have been aware of this from her training.

“She chose to disregard that. She chose to abuse this trust,” the judge added.

A judge branded Harris as ‘utterly inappropriate’. Picture: Facebook

‘Abuse of trust’

Ms Flanagan also argued that Harris did not “specifically target this particular boy” since he was the one who first messaged her and initially drove that communication.

The defence barrister added that a conviction of this kind “will follow her forever” and will be “a lifetime punishment for what she did.

“And she bitterly regrets that she became involved with (the boy) and she wanted me to tell the court that she did not intend to cause him any harm.”

Harris, from Henlow, Bedfordshire, was jailed for six years at St Albans Crown Court.

She will serve half her sentence in custody and the remainder on licence.

She has also been placed on the sex offenders register “indefinitely”.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission