A FORMER drama teacher who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in the 1990s has been jailed.

Lynne Rodgers, 55, of Braithwaite Edge Road, Keighley, abused the boy on numerous occasions, a court heard.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron told Bradford Crown Court the victim got on well with Rodgers, but could not explain how it became sexual between them.

On the first occasion abuse took place, while in a car, Rodgers, who was aged 30 at the time and married with two young sons, undid her clothing, exposing her genitalia.

Mr Hendron said: “Rodgers told him to masturbate her, which he did. This was repeated on other occasions, and he remembered kissing her when she pulled into a car park on a number of occasions.

“On a second occasion, while in the back seat of the car, Rodgers performed oral sex on the boy at her request.

“In the bedroom, she told him to keep low so the neighbours would not see, and told him to perform oral sex on her, which he did. He said he had no idea what he was doing.

“The fourth occasion they were on her sofa, which was when he lost his virginity. She asked if he wanted to have sex and he said yes, after which she passed him a condom and they proceeded to have sex.”

At some point after, the boy had written Rodgers a love letter and thought his mother had seen it and gone into the school. It turned out they thought he had been getting too attached to Rodgers, and she left the school shortly afterwards.

A victim impact statement written by the man said: “I find it difficult to put into words how this abuse has affected me.

“For years I have wanted to report it but was scared of what it would put into motion.

“I thought my parents knew about the abuse, but now I know they never knew and thought it was just a schoolboy crush. They had no idea about the extent of the abuse.

“I was groomed by this person and a victim to an evil person’s vices.”

In mitigation, Camille Morland said Rodgers had been unhappily married and suffering from post-natal depression at the time.

She said Rodgers admitted frankly to the abuse in police interview and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

Rodgers has been on anti-depressants and tried to commit suicide in the past.

In sentencing, Judge Colin Burn said: “By the virtue you are a female and he was a male victim, the guidelines produce a sentence lower than if the genders were reversed.

“The courts have struggled with cases like this. Sentencing at the time this was committed would have resulted in a non-custodial sentence, but now this would be wholly inappropriate and would not reflect the great harm caused.”

Judge Burn sentenced Rodgers to ten months in prison for three counts of gross indecency towards a boy under the age of 14, and one count of indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 14.