Woman admits sex with teenage boy

A 40-year-old Stockton-on-Tees woman who had sex with a 14-year-old boy has been spared jail after a judge said she was "seduced" by the teenager.

Sharon Edwards' husband found messages from the schoolboy on a computer at the family home in Elton Grove.

Teesside Crown Court heard Edwards was unhappy in her marriage and that the "mature" schoolboy had seduced her.

She admitted sexual activity with a child and was given a 12-month jail term suspended for two years.

The court was told Edwards' husband also found scores of text messages from the boy and informed his mother, who called in the police.

Edwards said she had sex with the boy four times between September 2007 and January 2008 - on one occasion at her sister's home when she was away.

'Very unhappy'

The teenager admitted the relationship when pressed by his mother, saying he had a crush on the older woman.

The court heard that in one message the boy asked Edwards, described as a "lonely housewife", to get some cocaine for an arranged meeting.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox QC, told her: "You had been a very unhappy lady for a very considerable period of time when this 14-year-old boy seduced you.

"Of course you have a responsibility as an adult to reject his advances.

"But I do regard this case as an exceptional one because of the details and what I have read in the psychiatric report."

Edwards was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years after she pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual activity with a child and offering to supply a Class A drug.