Married care worker Lindy Leah ‘fell in love’ allegedly had a sexual relationship with a boy she fell in love with at a children’s home, donning skimpy outfits and letting him sleep in her bed
A married care worker accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage boy she “fell in love with” told a jury she was “joking” when she suggested going for a “night away with balloons and flake”.
Lindy Leah, 44, is said to have donned skimpy outfits around the boy and let him sleep in her bed at the children’s home where she was a deputy manager after being assigned as his key worker.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Leah admitted that she fell in love with the boy, but prosecutor Graham Pickavance said: “The crown say that it was not simply parental love, but something that went far beyond that and was physical love,” the Liverpool Echo reports.
The court heard a slew of texts between the pair “painted a picture of a relationship” far removed from a carer and child’. One message from Leah on one phone which had been confiscated from the boy said: “I’ll give it you on Wednesday for a love bite.”
In another, she told him: “All I want is for me and you to have a night away from everyone, just us. So if I wake up from these tablets and wine, then we will.” She added: “Do you wanna go MFC [missing from care]? I love you so much. Can I book somewhere for me and you on Friday?”
Wearing a black jumper and with her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, she told the court: “I’m joking with him. I think I’m funny. It was just banter. I don’t want a love bite off a 15-year-old boy, I have a husband. He was covered in love bites, we’d all been making fun of him. I was just referring to it and laughing about it.”
When it was put to her that colleagues had described her as “feeling strongly for him” and “getting upset and emotional on behalf of him”, she replied: “I think it was incredibly unprofessional of me and inappropriate. I just took on this role of his mother. I really seen him as my son, my kid. I adored him. We were little besties. We were a little team.
“It was incredibly naïve and unprofessional of me to behave like that. I just got incredibly emotionally involved and looked at him like a son. He seemed so unloved by everyone around him. He just didn’t have a relationship with his family. He had no one. He seen me as his mother. I took on that role and really looked out for him.
“I seen the kids as my children. I wanted to show them how kids thrive with a good mother around them. That’s the only way I knew to be. We tried to make it as homely as possible. That’s what we wanted for the children, to make it as much as a home environment as we could.”
Questioned over the boy’s drug use, Leah said: “I was obsessed with ketamine. I didn’t want him killing himself. I was so scared of him becoming a smackhead. I’ve done so much training on it. I just wanted to fix it for him.”
Another message read: “Red and silky with some balloons and flake. Make sure you get your arse home tonight so you can go missing from care with me without there being meetings.”
She said of this: “I was joking. I have a dry sense of humour. He knows how I felt about drugs. I meant wine. I was being silly, dramatic. He knows I’m joking. I was making fun of balloons, is it nitrous oxide?”
She denied having taken drugs with the boy and, when asked whether there was “any intention for this trip to be sexual”, replied: “Absolutely not. No.”
She was asked by her counsel Rebecca Fillettik: “In general terms, what do you think of those messages?”. Leah replied: “I think they’re completely unprofessional and inappropriate. I think I acted on fear. I think I was acting like a mother, or we were friends.
“[The boy] didn’t have anybody that cared about him. He was so alone. He just attached himself to me. I’m just a really loving person. I just loved him and really looked out for him. I thought he was my son. I thought he was my little friend. I had such an emotional, maternal attachment to him. It’s inappropriate. It’s not ok.”
Asked why she had chosen to give evidence, tearful Leah said: “I just wanted everyone to see that I really seen [the boy] as my son, and I wanted to have my opportunity to show everybody that I know I was unprofessional, I know I was dramatic and I know I was ridiculous, but I never incited any sexual activity with [the boy]. I just really, really thought I was his mum.
“I really thought I was a mum, and I thought I was helping him. I never meant for… I’m so sorry. I just wanted everyone to see or hear there was another… although the messages are really inappropriate, I really meant well.”
Leah denies one count of being a person in a position of trust causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The trial continues.
If you or somebody you know has been affected by this story, contact Victim Support for free, confidential advice on 08 08 16 89 111 or visit their website.
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