A TEACHING ASSISTANT sent cryptic texts to a student’s mother to reassure her that her son was safe – before making out with him in parking lot

A TEACHING ASSISTANT sent cryptic texts to a student’s mother to reassure her that her son was safe – before having making out with him in parking lot

Hannah Harris, 23, met the 14-year-old while working as a teacher at a school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

Harris, who was 21 at the time, allegedly duped the boy’s parents by texting them and claiming to be the mother of the boy’s fictitious girlfriend.

Harris had intimate relations with the boy in a Wilko car park after posing as the mother of his fictitious girlfriend, whom she named “Kayla,” in order to communicate with his parents via texts.

Harris and the boy also communicated via social media and met up outside of school, including her driving him to supermarkets “to buy him his favourite sweets,” taking him to McDonald’s, and allowing him to smoke cannabis in her car.

Harris was sentenced to six years in prison today after being found guilty of intimate activity with a child. The charges were denied by the ex-teaching assistant.

Olivia, she said, was her name, and she lived in Baldock, Hertfordshire.

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

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

Harris was apprehended in January 2020 after the boy’s older brother discovered his whereabouts.

The boy admitted that “Olivia” and “Kayla” were made up names.

“When the parents became aware, they realised they had unwittingly facilitated the contact,” Mr Wilshire said. The boy had duped them into thinking he was seeing someone his own age.”

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

Harris, of Henlow, Bedfordshire, pleaded not guilty to four counts of intimate activity with a child between December 2019 and January 2020.

SICK CRIMES

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

She found Harris’s behaviour to be a “abuse of trust,” “grooming,” and involving “significant planning.”

“I find that you disregarded all of your warnings,” Judge Wigin said.

“I believe you were well aware that his messages should have been screenshotted and reported to senior staff. That was not done by you.”

Harris burst into tears as the judge read the sentence.

Before the sentencing, defence attorney Julia Flanagan argued that the messages and trips were not intended to facilitate 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.

‘ABUSE OF TRUST’

Ms Flanagan also claimed that Harris did not “specifically target this particular boy,” despite the fact that he was the one who first messaged her and drove the communication.

According to the defence barrister, a conviction of this nature “will follow her forever” and will be “a lifetime punishment for what she did.”

“And she bitterly regrets her involvement with (the boy), and she wanted me to tell the court that she had no intention of causing him any harm.”