Teaching assistant who bought new underwear and hired hotel room before 'planned sex' with 15-year-old student faces jail
A teacher's assistant, dubbed 'Mrs. Robinson', is facing jail time after she was convicted of arranging to meet a pupil from her school at a hotel to sexually groom him.
Lydia Beattie-Milligan, 43, a married mother-of-two, first came under suspicion when another member of the staff at her school noticed she was paying an increasing amount of attention to a 15-year-old boy and "acting too familiar with him in the corridor", according to the Liverpool Echo.
Then, when she gave him bonus points in the class one day, the member of staff joked that he must be her favorite, following which the teen reportedly showed him his mobile phone with messages from her arranging a night at a hotel for them.
Prosecutor Cheryl Mottram told the Liverpool Crown Court that one of the 43-year-old's other colleagues recalled her being excited about the meeting, "She had bought new underwear… the Crown says she was clearly anticipating a sexual encounter."
She revealed that the 43-year-old, who had 25 years of experience as a teaching assistant and learning facilitator, was even described as 'Mrs. Robsinson' from 'The Graduate' because of her sexual advances.
Beattie-Milligan claimed that she was in contact with the boy because she was helping him through anxiety issues and that, even though she knew taking phone numbers or personal email addresses from students was against policy, she wanted to "support him."
When questioned about a message that read, "Can't wait to see you tomorrow. xx," she argued, "I give everyone a kiss on my texts, it is what I do, there was nothing in it." But there was another message where he asked her if she loved him, to which she responded, "OMG I cannot stop thinking about you but I know it is wrong. You do batter my head, so maybe."
"That is when I started to realize the lines were getting blurred," she claimed when the text was brought up in court.
She also said she had been suffering from emotional problems herself at the time and that she had booked a hotel room to explain to the boy that they had crossed a boundary in their teacher-pupil relationship.
She said she wanted to "sort this out" and tell him that their relationship "cannot go on." "I have 100% no interest in children in a sexual way," she told the jurors. The jury had none of it and took just an hour to convict her of arranging to meet a child for sexual grooming.
Judge Gary Woodhall ordered Beattie-Milligan to sign the Sex Offenders Register and told her, "Giving you bail and ordering a pre-sentence report is not to be taken as any indication of the sentence I will impose. You must come to court aware of the fact that you may receive an immediate custodial sentence."
The 43-year-old is scheduled to be sentenced in September.