A teaching assistant who had sex with a 14-year-old pupil in a supermarket car park has been jailed for six years.

Hannah Harris, 23, was also placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely after a court heard her behaviour had a ‘devastating effect’ on the boy.

Judge Caroline Wigin told Harris, who worked at a school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, her actions ‘constituted grooming’ and were an ‘abuse of trust’.

Harris, of Henlow, Bedfordshire, was 21 when she started the relationship — duping the boy’s parents by posing in texts as the mother of his fictional girlfriend.

The pair exchanged messages and met outside of school, including her driving him to supermarkets ‘to buy his favourite sweets’ and letting him smoke cannabis in her car.

Harris had been warned at least twice by a fellow member of staff about ‘inappropriate conversations’ and flirtatious behaviour, including an incident of ‘play fighting’ with a pupil.

She was caught when the boy’s older brother found out about the relationship in January 2020 and his parents soon became aware.

Harris, who was found guilty in February of sexual activity with a child, sobbed as she was sentenced at St Albans crown court on Wednesday.

The judge told her: ‘Your conduct has had a devastating effect upon the life of that young man.’

She said: ‘I find that you disregarded all the warnings that you had.

‘You were well aware, I find, that his messages should have been screenshotted by you and reported to senior staff. You did not do that.’

Earlier, Julia Flanagan, defending, argued that the messages and trips had not been geared specifically towards facilitating 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.

Ms Flanagan also argued that Harris did not ‘specifically target this particular boy’ since he was the one who first messaged her and initially drove that communication.

The defence barrister added that a conviction of this kind ‘will follow her forever’ and will be ‘a lifetime punishment for what she did.

‘And 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.’

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

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