🔴 Deputy Care Home Manager Found Guilty of Grooming Vulnerable Teenage Boy in Her Care

Leah, of Capesthorne Road, Warrington, was convicted of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust after jurors heard she became fixated on a teenage resident.

The court heard how Leah took the teenager on multiple holidays alone and blocked his transfer to an alternative placement which she admitted was in the boy’s best interests.

Leah denied any intention of a sexual relationship, telling the court she regarded the boy as a son and her conduct as misguided attempts to “help” him.

Colleagues described her as a “bully” who was uninterested in doing her job and prevented others from caring for the boy

Jurors were shown WhatsApp messages in which Leah told the boy she loved him, asked “for a love bite” in exchange for returning his phone, and proposed they go “missing from care” for a “night away” together with something “red and silky” - which she denied referring to underwear, but instead claimed referring to wine, - as well as “balloons” — slang for nitrous oxide — and “flake”, a term used for cocaine.

She admitted sending the messages but claimed she had been drinking and taking pain medication, and that references to drugs and alcohol were “a joke”.

Jurors also saw a photograph recovered from her phone of the boy holding a balloon in his mouth; Leah told the court that this was because the boy was self-conscious about his teeth.

One former colleague described her as “unnaturally friendly, unnaturally excitable” around the boy, recounting incidents in which Leah told him she had “no knickers” and, clad in a skin-tight bodysuit, invited him to look at her breasts On another occasion she reportedly removed her jumper after it received marks from paint, drawing the boys attention before wobbling her belly and chest in his direction.

Leah’s personal life was also examined during the trial, with a former colleague recalling that she spoke disparagingly of her family. She was said to have admitted marrying her husband for his money, described her son as “a spoiled brat” and expressed a wish that her daughter would die. Jurors heard she was reluctant to accompany her husband on a holiday to mark their 25th wedding anniversary, telling others she “didn’t love him” and did not want to be away from the boy.

Leah, the boy’s key worker at a private care home, told the court was hired as on the basis she was “a mum” rather than on professional qualifications or training.

The court heard the home’s management had been alerted to multiple concerns about her conduct but failed to act.

Prosecutor Graham Pickavance described a pattern of conduct that was “so unprofessional it crossed the line into criminality”, with Leah inviting the teenager into staff bedrooms and making sexualised comments in front of colleagues.

The court heard she later breached bail conditions by meeting him in Warrington, which she said was because he was “devastated” and “begged to see me”

She was remanded into custody and will be sentenced next month

Well, that’s all for now. But until our next article, please stay tuned, stay informed, but most of all stay safe, and I’ll see you then.