A teacher who had sex with a schoolgirl was caught by police after her girlfriend reported her, a court has heard.

Teaching assistant Ellie Pattison, 29, was tasked with looking after vulnerable children who were in care, Hove Crown Court court heard.

It was then she allegedly befriended a 14-year-old schoolgirl and regularly met her outside of school, reports The Mirror.

A friend of the school girl spotted the pair kissing in the teacher’s car and told police, according to the prosecution.

Pattison’s girlfriend Naomi Tregear also reported her to the police, jurors heard.

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The court was told how she was assigned to look after the alleged victim, who was in a children’s home.

It was said in court that the pair became very close and formed an “inappropriate relationship”.

Sarah Lindop, prosecuting, said: “She formed an inappropriate and sexual relationship with this 14 year old girl.

“She abused her position of trust but also made the complainant, who was a vulnerable child, believe it was a real relationship and that she loved her.” 

Ms Lindop said that the friend who witnessed the teacher kissing was “asked not to say anything but she broke that confidence and she made a complaint”.

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The court heard the pair would regularly text one another, exchanging intimate messages and set up cameras in their bedrooms so they could see one another.

Pattison was arrested by officers and admitted to being close to the teenager but when the allegations were put to her she denied anything sexual had ever taken place.

She told officers: “No nothing like this ever happened.”

Pattison, worked at a secondary school in East Sussex, and when school bosses allegedly heard Pattison had been meeting the girl outside school she was suspended from her job.

Pattison is on trial charged with three counts of penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged between the age of 13 and 15.

She was also charged with two further charges of non-penetrative sexual activity with the child at various locations in East Sussex.

Pattison denies five charges of sexual activity with her alleged victim.

The alleged offences are said to have happened between 2017-2018 when Pattison was 23 years old.

The trial continues.

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