Teaching assistant’s gran says ‘she must pay for it’ after sex with boy, 14, outside Wilko

THE GRAN of a teaching assistant who was jailed for having sex with a 14-year-old boy today said she must "pay" for her actions. 

Hannah Harris, 23, posed as the mum of her victim's girlfriend to hide their relationship after she had sex with the boy in a Wilko’s car park. 

Harris, who worked at a school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, yesterday sobbed as she was jailed for six years. 

She had previously denied four charges of sexual activity with a child in December 2019 and January 2020.

Harris - from Henlow, Bedfordshire - was found not guilty on three of the four charges against her. 

Her dad Jason said that she had “just wanted to help” after starting work at the school in 2018. 

But speaking exclusively to the Sun, her gran Patricia Middleton admitted she had made a “silly mistake.”

She said: "I don’t know what possessed 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.

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

Patricia Middleton

She said her name was Olivia and she lived in Baldock, Hertfordshire.

In one text Harris wrote: "Seems Kayla and …(the boy) are getting on well, so I am happy to ferry them around."

Harris was caught in January 2020 when the boy’s older brother found out.

The boy admitted "Olivia" and "Kayla" were fictional.

Speaking from her home today, Patricia added: “The family have been supportive but no one said anything to her. I think her mum said it was likely she would go to prison so we knew. 

“I don’t know what possessed her but you don’t know what goes on in people's minds. 

"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'

He went on: “As a teaching assistant at his school she (Harris) would have known his age - such activity is a criminal offence regardless of whether he believed himself to be a willing party.”

Sentencing Harris, Judge Caroline Wigin told her: "Your conduct has had a devastating effect upon the life of that young man.

"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."

She found that Harris's behaviour was an "abuse of trust", "constituted grooming" and involved "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".