A SCHOOL worker who sent topless pictures of herself to two teenage pupils has been given a community order.
Tracy Fox, 46, started sending the 15-year-old boys text messages containing ‘rude gestures and naked pictures’ in December 2011.
One of the victims told his head of year about his contact with the support worker in March, and she resigned from her job after the headteacher confronted her with the allegation.
The school then contacted the boy’s father, who found the messages they had exchanged.
A court order was made, banning the media from reporting the name of the school.
Magistrates heard that the married mother of four had a troubled home life, and was ‘looking for friendship’.
Jodie Hitchcock, for the prosecution, said Fox had confided in one of the boys.
“She would talk to him about her problems in her office, and say that he was a ‘good kid’ who was ‘misunderstood’ at times. They started texting, and in these messages they both stated that they would like to sleep with each other and give each other oral sex.”
Both boys said during their police interview that Fox had sent them messages suggesting they meet up for sex, but this did not happen in either case.
Fox, of Harmondsworth Lane, West Drayton, admitted six charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust.
Appearing at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday, June 8, a remorseful Fox sobbed as she was told her punishment.
District Judge Deboragh Wright said: “This is a difficult and sad case. As a result of these actions the defendant has lost her job, jeopardised her marriage and relationships within her own family and obliterated any prospect of working in the environment she was working in.
“I can only speculate about what possessed her to behave in the manner she did. She was in a position of trust and abused that, and it is a very serious matter.”
Fox was sentenced to a 12-month community order.
A five-year sexual offences notification order was made, and she will be supervised by probation officers for 18 months and receive mental health treatment for a year.
The court also imposed a three-month curfew.
