Ellie Pattison allegedly began an inappropriate relationship with the teen (Picture: Brighton Pictures)
A teacher allegedly had sex with a ‘vulnerable’ pupil after forming a highly inappropriate relationship with her, a court heard today.
Ellie Pattison, 29, had befriended the 14-year-old schoolgirl who lived in care and made the teen believe the pair had ‘fallen in love’.
Pattison, from East Sussex,was in a relationship with a woman at the time, and regularly met with the teen outside of school.
The alleged crimes happened between 2017 and 2018 when Pattison was 23 and was working as a teaching assistant in a secondary school where she looked after children in care.
The teen and Pattison would reportedly text each other, exchanging intimate messages and ‘set up cameras in their bedrooms’ so they could see each other and communicate at night.
Hove Crown Court heard how Pattison went on to have sex with the teen in a car, a rented flat, and a friend’s apartment.
Pattison appeared in court this week over the allegations (Picture: Brighton Pictures)
The teen recalled a time Pattison picked her up in her car and kissed her after she had drank too much earlier in the evening.
She cried: ‘I didn’t really have any feeling for her (Pattison) like that before. I didn’t want it like that but I didn’t want to lose her because she was the only thing I had.
‘It’s f***** me up so bad that I can’t even have a relationship with anyone anymore. Every time I see a silver Peugeot I’m looking to see if it is her.’
The secret ‘relationship’ unravelled when a friend of the teen saw Pattison kissing her ‘passionately’ and made a complaint.
Prosecutor Sarah Lindop explained: ‘She witnessed some kissing. It was not just a peck on the check. It was more than kissing. It was kissing and inserting their tongues into each other’s mouths.’
School bosses then suspended Pattison from her job and the school, before her partner also reported her to the police.
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Pattison is now on trial for three counts of penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged between the of 13 and 15 and two further charges of non-penetrative sexual activity with the child at various locations in East Sussex.
Prosecutor Lindop added: ‘She formed an inappropriate and sexual relationship with this 14-year-old girl.
‘She abused her position of trust but also made the complainant, who was a vulnerable child, believe it was a real relationship and that she loved her.’
Upon her arrest, Pattison admitted to ‘being close’ to the teenager but denied any sexual involvement.
She told officers: ‘No, nothing like this ever happened.’ The trial will continue this week in Hove Crown Court.
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The alleged crimes happened between 2017 and 2018, when Pattison was 23 years old and was working as a teaching assistant in a secondary school where she looked after children in care.