THE glittering career of a nationally-acclaimed headteacher is in ruins after she was found guilty of having underage sex with two schoolboys in the 1980s.

Anne Lakey weeps as she is jailed for eight years for underage sex with two schoolboys

The late-night email that led to Anne Lakey's downfall

Anne Lakey, 55, from Stanley, County Durham, was convicted today of 13 charges of indecent assault and will return to court in the morning to learn her fate.

The disgraced "superhead" faces a maximum sentence of 14 years for the offences - which were committed when she taught RE and history at a Sunderland school.

Since that time, "inspirational" Lakey went on to gain recognition for her work, and was appointed chief executive of the Durham Federation of Schools.

She sobbed after the jury's 10-2 majority verdicts were announced, and looked towards the public gallery where her father, husband and daughter sat.

Judge Howard Crowson granted her bail overnight to sort out things at home, but told her barrister Julie Cleminson: "The type of sentence is inevitable."

The jury of seven men and five women spent almost 12 hours spread over three days deliberating at the end of a two-week trial at Teesside Crown Court.

During the case, the court heard that Lakey was a trained Ofsted inspector when the first accusations against her came to light two years ago.

She had been accused by two men of having sex with them when they were aged 13 and 14 in the case of the first, and 15 in the case of the second.

The first victim came forward in December 2012, when he sent an email to Lakey's school and the police, branding her a "disgusting sexual monster."

He said she seduced him at her home while her then husband was away on business.

He was aged 13 and still wearing his school uniform when she took his virginity on her marital bed, an act which began a fully fledged sexual affair.

In December 2014, a second man came forward and told detectives that Lakey sneaked him into her tent on a camping trip and took his virginity.

The first victim told the court of an occasion when Lakey’s husband almost caught them in their home, and had to hide in a cupboard in the bedroom.

The second accuser described how having sex for the first time while Lakey's husband was yards away in his own tent was "a mess of confusing feelings and images".

In her evidence, three-times-married Lakey said she was "devastated" when she was suspended amid the claims, and her career had been put at risk.

She vehemently denied any kind of sexual relationship with the first boy, although did accept having sex with the second but only after he had turned 18.

She denied ringing the second victim to ask him to lie to police about their sex when he was 15, telling him to back up her story that it only happened when he was 18 and at university.

Speaking after the verdict, Detective Inspector Aelf Sampson, of Durham Police, said: "These men were children at the time, and became vulnerable victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a woman who had some power and responsibility for them.

"She was someone who was respected and seen as successful by the community. These boys should have been safe in her company, instead of being damaged by their experience.

“Regardless of whether these boys appear to have been willing participants in the offences, they could not consent by law to what happened. The law is there to protect victims."

Lakey, of Oxhill Villas, Stanley, was told by Judge Crowson that she was getting bail as an act of mercy so she could say good-bye to her family, especially her elderly father.