Sex text teaching assistant is banned

Shelley Trinder, 30, was working with vulnerable students at a Shropshire school in 2011 when she began to send texts to the children, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.

Trinder was sending messages daily to a teenage boy at the school.

Ms Raj Punia, prosecuting, said: "She gave him the pin number for her Blackberry phone so he could text her for free. He sent her a message saying 'hi' and instead of ignoring the message or telling him it was inappropriate to text her, she encouraged this contact. One night in August 2011 she sent him a message saying she was out drinking and said she was 'horny'. The boy thought it was a joke and asked her to send him a dirty message."

Trinder replied that if he was older and she younger she would have sex with him. The text messages moved to a more sexual nature to include her talking about her performing a sex act on him and then having sex, the court heard. During this time he received three pictures of her and had sent pictures of himself naked to her.

Ms Punia said the Telford school had spoken to her about her behaviour after she began chatting on Facebook with some of her students in July 2011. She said: "She was warned she would be putting her job at risk if she continued. In November it was brought to the attention of the authorities that there were inappropriate activities going on." At an earlier hearing, Trinder, of Dalford Court, Hollinswood, admitted one charge of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Judge Robin Onions banned Trinder from working with children for life and handed her a 20-month jail term suspended for two years, placed her under a sexual offences prevention order for seven years, and made her subject to a supervision order for two years, notification requirements for 10 years and a curfew for three months.

He said: "The school appears to have acted completely properly and warned her and she just ignored the warnings.

"It was a remarkably vulnerable pupil. She was clearly sexually attracted to him. In many ways this is a classic grooming case but they did meet and didn't have sexual contact. If there had been any contact she would have gone into custody and it would have been measured in years.

"This young lady is remarkably immature and totally unsuited to a career in teaching." He added: "If she does anything like this again it will be prison."

Nigel Newman, a spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, which employed Trinder, said: "The individual was suspended from her employment with the council as a support assistant in February 2012 as soon as we were made aware of the allegation arising from the incident which led to her being charged by police. Following this, disciplinary proceedings were held which resulted in her dismissal from her job with the council in March 2013."