After having  intimate relations with a 14-year-old boy outside Wilko, the teaching assistant’s grandmother says “she must pay for it.”

THE GRAN of a teaching assistant sentenced to prison today for having intimate relations with a 14-year-old boy said she must “pay” for her actions.

Hannah Harris, 23, pretended to be her victim’s girlfriend’s mother in order to conceal their relationship after having sex with the boy in a Wilko’s parking lot.

Harris, who worked at a school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, sobbed as she was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday.

In December 2019 and January 2020, she denied four charges of intimate activity with a child.

Harris, of Henlow, Bedfordshire, was acquitted on three of the four charges levelled against her.

She’s got to pay for it and is paying for it.

“I always found her a lovely little girl, but what she did was wrong.

“I don’t know [if they’re going to appeal the sentence]. All I have been told is what she was sentenced.”

The family reportedly met up the weekend before Harris was jailed, but did not talk about her conviction.

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

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.

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.

Patricia said today from her home, “The family has been supportive, but no one has said anything to her.” I believe her mother told us she was likely to go to prison, so we were prepared.

“I’m not sure what possessed her, but you never know what goes on in people’s heads.”

“I feel for her parents.

“We’re so sorry that she’s done such a silly thing. ”

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

St Albans Crown Court heard that she showed no remorse for her crimes when interviewed by probation.

Prosecutor Simon Wilshire said: “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.”

‘ABUSE OF TRUST’

“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.

Judge Caroline Wigin told Harris during her sentencing: “Your actions have had a devastating impact on that young man’s life.

“I believe you disregarded all of your warnings.

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

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

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

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

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