A teaching assistant pretended to be the mother of a 14-year-fictitious old’s girlfriend in order to persuade his parents that their son was safe before they had sex in a Wilko parking lot.

Hannah Harris, 23, sent the text message to the boy’s mother after becoming friends with him at school.

Harris duped them, according to St Albans Crown Court, by pretending to be a woman named Olivia, who claimed to be looking after the lad and his girlfriend ‘Kayla.’

They had sex in the parking lot hours later.

Harris, who was 21 at the time, was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of sexual activity with a child.

In December 2019 and January 2020, the woman from Henlow, Bedfordshire, denied the four charges.

On three of the four charges, she was found not guilty.

She also exchanged social media messages with the boy, driving him to buy his favourite candy at one point.

The paedophile also allowed the adolescent to smoke marijuana in her car.

The teaching assistant was only brought to justice after the boy’s older brother discovered what had happened and informed his mother.

“Both parents believed they had spoken to Olivia on the phone and his mother had exchanged texts,” prosecutor Simon Wilshire told the court.

“The names Kayla and Olivia were made up to conceal the fact that they were meeting up.”

“In fact, the parents were speaking with Ms Harris because that was the number they had been given for Olivia.”

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

“The boy had duped them into thinking he was seeing someone 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.”

Judge Caroline Wigin sentenced her on Wednesday, saying the woman’s behaviour was an “abuse of trust”, “constituted grooming” and involved “significant planning”.

She said: “Your conduct has had a devastating effect upon the life of that young man.

“I find that you disregarded all the warnings that you had.”

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

But Judge Wigin cut in, saying sharply: “It is utterly inappropriate to form any relationship of any kind.

“She chose to disregard that. She chose to abuse this trust.”

The defence barrister added: “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.”

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