Description
A teacher who had a "full-blown sexual relationship" with a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for 16 months.
Alice McBrearty, 23, admitted the four-month relationship with a pupil she taught at an east London school.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard McBrearty kissed the youngster in a classroom, and had sex with him at her parents' home in Wanstead Park, east London.
She pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.
'Besotted'
Prosecutors said the relationship began when the teacher sent the boy a friend request on Facebook.
Barrister Lisa Matthews said the teenager, who cannot be named, "felt special" and "appeared to be besotted" with McBrearty.
The court heard the pair met in several locations, including a hotel room McBrearty had booked, and had sexual contact.
Their relationship ended when the boy's father contacted police.
McBrearty put her head in her hands and sobbed when she was sentenced by Judge Sheelagh Canavan.
The judge described her as a "bright, intelligent and gifted young woman, who knew right from wrong," but who had committed the "grossest breach of trust".
'Fall from grace'
"You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child," she said.
"I accept he was consenting - what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?
"I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn't matter. But it did.
"You were supposed to keep him safe, to help him make the right decisions. Instead, you helped him make all the wrong ones."
Emma Shafton, defending, said her client, who is no longer a teacher, has had "a spectacular fall from grace".
"She has been utterly disgraced by this," she added.