Yahoo Finance Teaching assistant, 57, ‘groomed and sexually abused vulnerable boy between the ages of 12-14’
A teaching assistant groomed and sexually abused a vulnerable boy when he was aged 12 to 14, a court in Devon heard.
Ming Lockhart-Stephens, 57, is accused of four counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity between February 2010 and February 2013. She has denied all charges.
At the time, Ms Lockhart-Stephens was a teaching assistant in a secondary school in the South Hams, DevonLive reported.
Prosecutor Heather Hope told the jury at the Plymouth Crown Court: “You can be sure that Ming Lockhart-Stephens used her position in the school to groom and sexually abuse a vulnerable child.”
She said that Ms Lockhart-Stephens saw herself as the boy’s “new mother,” as the boy’s parents had split up before he was born.
She told the jury heard how Ms Lockhart-Stephens had involved herself in the boy’s personal life, spending time with him outside of school, giving him lifts to and from school, and telling his father that she was helping him with his homework.
“At the time she was making out that she was doing things to help him. We say the reality is that she was grooming him for her own sexual pleasure,” Ms Hope told the court.
The court heard that Ms Lockhart-Stephens and the boy had exchanged phone numbers and exchanged text messages. Ms Hope said that these messages began as “flirty” but then became “more sexualised”.
The jury also heard how Ms Lockhart-Stephens encouraged the boy to perform sex acts on her in a car park near a sports ground, and at her home.
The court also heard from the victim, now 23, who is unnamed for legal reasons, in his recorded complaint interview with the police in 2018.
He told the police: “We did everything other than sex. She made me totally dependent on her until I was totally obsessed.”
“She would make out like we had met in a previous life and I was mentally mature, more than my physical age.
He added that Ms Lockhart-Stephens told him that if he did not have a girlfriend by the time he was 16 that she would have sex with him.
He told the interviewing officer that he would see Ms Lockhart-Stephens every day, and that they would cuddle while watching television. He added that she would instigate sex acts, sometimes several times a week.
He also told the police that he felt that Ms Lockhart-Stephens had emotionally manipulated him, creating tension within his family.
When asked by the officer about how he feels about Ms Lockhart-Stephens now, he said: “Quite angry. I feel as if I have been betrayed.”
Ms Lockhart-Stephens told the police that the complainant was lying when he came forward in 2018, and that there was never any sexual activity between them. She continues to deny all charges.
The case continues.
You can find more information and advice for people affected by sexual assault and abuse at Rape Crisis or you can call the National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
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