A teaching assistant who groomed teenage pupils on Facebook and sent them indecent messages has been jailed for two years and eight months. Emma Webb, 42, from Woodley, Berkshire, admitted 30 offences involving five boys aged between 15 and 17 between 2009 and 2012.
Reading Crown Court heard that Webb, a married mother of two, worked as a study supervisor at a school that cannot be named for legal reasons. On one occasion, she performed a sex act on a boy in a school room, stopping only when the bell rang. She also invited a boy to her home to walk her dog but instead had sex with him on the stairs.
The court was told that Webb befriended her victims before sending suggestive texts and indecent photos of herself using sex toys. A friend who discovered her Facebook contact with the boys warned her to stop, but she continued. Several of the boys knew about each other's relationships with her.
Judge John Reddihough said Webb had risked leaving the boys with a "distorted attitude to females and sex" and that they likely felt guilt, shame, and embarrassment. He added: "You put your thrill-seeking before their interests."
Webb pleaded guilty to 16 counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust, six counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, four counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, and one further count of sexual activity with a child. She was banned from working with children for life and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.
