HAPTON support teacher Zoe Morgan has admitted kissing a boy in her car - but said she knew it had been wrong.

Morgan said she kissed the boy, who cannot be named, on the mouth in an attempt to get rid of him after he got into her car and refused to leave.

She told a jury at Burnley Crown Court she had driven the boy from the Barden Lane area of Burnley to the car park of TK Maxx, where the boy asked her for a kiss.

Although she initially refused, she caved in in the hope of getting him out of the car, she said.However, she said she had never had sex with the teenager, either in her car, or at her house.

She said: "Yes I kissed him, but it was not the sort of kiss I would give my partner.

"I felt awful because I knew I had done something wrong.

"I instantly knew from that second that everything was on the line, my job and my family."

She said after the kiss the boy and his friends threatened to 'ruin' her unless she took them out in her car and to her house.

She admitted the boys had gone to her house in Leigh Park, but denied ever giving them alcohol, or cannabis.

She said she had never been alone with the youth in the house.

Philip Holden, defending, said it was alleged Morgan had sex on several occasions with the boy, and had performed sex acts on him. She denied both.

Morgan, 32, a mother of one, denies five counts of sexual activity with a child between September and November last year.

Earlier, the jury heard the defendant, of Leigh Park, Hapton, was working as a support teacher and mentor at Barden High School, Burnley, when the six-week relationship began.

Kate Blackwell, prosecuting, told the court there was a series of meetings, with Morgan taking the youth and his friends to her home.

The teacher and the boy allegedly had sex in her bedroom, and in her daughter's bedroom.

She also allegedly performed sex acts on him in her car at a picnic site at Barley, and in the car park of TK Maxx, in Burnley, the court heard.

(Proceeding)