Carer claims asking 15-year-old boy for a love bite was just 'banter - I have a husband'

A care worker told jurors she did not "want a love bite" from a 15-year-old boy she looked after by insisting that she has "a husband" and called her "unprofessional and inappropriate" messages "banter". Lindy Leah allegedly "fell in love with" the teenage resident of the care home where she was employed as deputy manager and is accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with him.

The 44-year-old mum told a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday she was "joking" when she suggested going for a "night away with balloons and flake". Leah, from Warrington, 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. She however "denies any improper behaviour" and is currently on trial.

Jurors were read a series of WhatsApp messages which were exchanged between Leah and the boy.

In one exchange with the teen Leah suggested she would return the boy's mobile phone "for a love bite".

In response the mum said: "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."

In court Leah was then referred to another WhatsApp exchange in which she told the teenager: "Just listened to a song and it made me cry. Stupid love songs. It made me think of you, then it made me cry."

Jurors were told that the song in question was Waterfalls by TLC, with Leah adding: "I tried to make him listen to it. It's about a son who keeps doing wrong things and choosing the wrong path."

Leah's counsel Rebecca Filletti said she was "not going to ask her to sing" but asked her to recite some of the song's lyrics. Leah said in response: "Something sad like, lonely mother staring out the window looking at the son. I can't remember the rest. Just about how he keeps choosing the wrong path."

Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, told the court during the prosecution's opening: "The defendant, by her own admission, admitted that she fell in love with him. But the crown say that it was not simply parental love, but something that went far beyond that and was physical love."

While the teenager "does not support the prosecution", colleagues described "inappropriate" behaviour from Leah, who wore a black dress in the dock with her blonde hair tied back in a bun, as well as "unprofessional interventions which prevented [the boy] from being challenged about his behaviour". He was also said to have been seen lying in her bed at the home "as if it was completely normal", with the defendant having apparently remarked of this: "He's comfortable. He always does that. No one else has a problem."

Leah, who is represented by Rebecca Filletti, denies one count of being a person in a position of trust causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. The trial, before Judge Brian Cummings KC, continues.