A TEACHING assistant accused of having sex with a pupil told police she sent him a picture of herself in her underwear "for attention", a court heard.

Helen Turnbull admitted to detectives she may have told the 16-year-old she loved him at the end of drunken messages on the internet.

In a police interview, she said the boy had cheered her up during the break-up of her marriage to her husband, with whom she has two children.

But the literacy assistant said their relationship went no further than kissing at two secret meetings on an industrial estate in her black Mini convertible.

She has admitted sexual activity with a child while being in a position of trust - the kissing - but denies three further counts relating to sex.

After her arrested, Ms Turnbull told Detective Constable Kimberley Walker that she and the boy began sending messages via Facebook and iMessenger.

Her husband was frequently away with work, and she was lonely and drinking "too much" once her children were in bed, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Ms Turnbull, who studied law and international politics at Keele University, said the schoolboy "could make me laugh or cheer me up" as they chatted.

The defendant, of Church View, Haswell, County Durham, told police: "He was the one keen to get me to like him, he was the one with all the compliments and I was more wary."

They met on an industrial estate and had an "awkward" hug, then chatted about music and about his life. They then kissed before parting, she said.

"He went to kiss me," she told the interviewer. "I went back because I was a bit shocked. It lasted for a couple of seconds then I dropped him off at the bus stop and drove off."

Ms Turnbull - known at her County Durham school as Miss Robson - agreed she later sent the boy a picture of herself in her underwear.

"I think it was for the attention," she said, before admitting to feeling "needy" and arguing with the boy a lot in their message exchanges.

The 35-year-old divorcee denied that she was in love with the teenager, and told the officer: "I feel like I trusted him and I have been an idiot."

The boy told police she had threatened that she could get him shot by a family of gypsies, but she claimed it was a joke that he had misunderstood.

Asked if she found the pupil attractive, she replied: "Not any more. It is not a physical attraction, it was more that he made me feel good at the time, when I felt really low and vulnerable."

The trial continues on Monday, when Ms Turnbull's defence case is expected to start.