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A married teaching assistant who kissed a schoolboy and sent him seductive messages walked free from court yesterday.
Helen Turnbull’s marriage fell apart when it emerged that she had been having secret trysts in her Mini with a 16-year-old boy.
It can now be revealed that the teaching assistant had a fascination with teenage boys, had previously been unfaithful to her husband with a youngster and is currently in a relationship with another former pupil – 23-year-old professional boxer Greg O’Neil.
Turnbull, 35, sobbed in the dock yesterday as a judge told her that grooming the child at the Catholic secondary school in Durham had cost her a career and her family.
She was given a four-month suspended sentence and told to sign the sex offenders’ register after admitting kissing the boy.
But she was cleared on charges relating to allegations she had sex with him.
The jury was read a slew of provocative messages from Turnbull to the 16-year-old boy, in which she talked about ‘power sex’ and said kissing him was one of the perks of her job.
Friends of Turnbull last night described how the relationship ‘spiralled out of control’ as they repeatedly pleaded with her to stop meeting the schoolboy.
Yet years before the affair with the pupil, suspicion had already been raised about her activity with children when her husband caught her kissing another teenager in the family home.
Ben Turnbull, 38, was left stunned when he found four boys in the house, one of whom was locked in an embrace with his wife in the kitchen.
Mr Turnbull had planned to tell the court how he stumbled upon the incident but the judge ruled the evidence inadmissable as it did not have any direct bearing on the defendant’s behaviour with the teenager.
Despite having a bitter argument about the incident, the couple continued their relationship and it was never reported to the authorities.
The marriage came to an end when Mr Turnbull accused his wife of having an affair after he discovered a picture online of her and the boy at the centre of the trial.
After a drunken night at her school’s prom, Turnbull changed her Facebook profile picture from one of her three-year-old daughter to an image of her ‘cuddling’ the 16-year-old.
Ex-pupil: Helen Turnbull's current boyfriend, 23-year-old professional boxer Greg O'Neil
Outside court: Turnbull told the jury that the lewd messages were ‘all talk’ and that sex never happened
In comments posted alongside the image, Turnbull, who friends described as ‘insecure’ and ‘a lonely person’, asked the pupil if she should wear an ‘itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini’ on a school trip.
When her contact with the boy stopped, the teaching assistant soon started a relationship with another former pupil.
Turnbull first met Mr O’Neil during intimate study sessions involving only three other pupils at the school.
She regained contact with him while socialising in a pub following the breakdown of her relationship with the other pupil.
Mr O’Neil, who left the school in 2007, became a professional boxer in 2012.
A source close to Mr O’Neil confirmed Turnbull was his girlfriend and said the boxer’s family ‘really like her’.
During the eight-day trial, Teesside Crown Court heard how Turnbull had sent the schoolboy a slew of flirtatious and suggestive messages.
Turnbull (pictured yesterday) was cleared by a jury at Teesside Crown Court of having sex with a 16-year-old pupil
Court building: The trial of Turnbull was heard at Teesside Crown Court (pictured) in Middlesbrough
In one, she asked the schoolboy what knickers she should wear before a secret meeting.
But the affair turned sour when the pupil went ‘cold’ and Turnbull allegedly told him that she would have him murdered by a notorious gypsy family if he left her.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Armstrong said Turnbull’s 13-year-old son now refuses to see her and she had limited access to her daughter, who is five.
He said: ‘You feared the worst at the time this was happening but you were unable to stop yourself from getting involved with this young man.’
He ordered her to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and put in place a restraining order to stop her contacting the boy or going near her former school.
Anne Richardson, defending Turnbull, said: ‘She clearly has suffered greatly for this utterly foolish and out-of-character behaviour.’
Friend Lauren Musgrove, 23, said Turnbull developed an interest in the 16-year-old boy for ‘excitement’ because her marriage was in disarray. ‘She was having a bad time. I think she wanted some excitement,’ she said.
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