A 23-year-old teacher who had sex with her 15-year-old pupil at her home has been jailed for 16 months.

Alice Rose McBrearty, who lives with her parents in Wanstead Park Avenue, Manor Park, had a “full-blown sexual relationship” over four months with a boy she taught at an east London school.

The teacher, who pursued the teenager on social media, admitted having sex and performing sex acts on him at her home.

Snaresbrook Crown Court also heard how she took him to a hotel near the ExCeL for sex, kissed him in a classroom and performed sex acts on him in an empty garage and in her car.

McBrearty had previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.

Sentencing her this morning, Judge Sheelagh Canavan said McBrearty had committed the “grossest breach of trust” despite being a “bright, intelligent and gifted young woman”, who knew right from wrong.

She said: “You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child.

“I accept he was consenting - what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?”

She added: “I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn’t matter. But it did.”

She went on to say the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did “not have the necessary experience of life or maturity to make that decision himself”.

The court heard the inappropriate sexual relationship began at the end of January when McBrearty friend-requested the schoolboy on social media, a move which was said to make him “feel special”,

She told him to delete the request but later contacted him again on Instagram.

Prosecutor Lisa Matthews said: “She started to take him out to parks, including the Olympic Park, they went on strolls and out for meals.

“He appeared to be besotted with her.”

The relationship ended when the boy’s father contacted police.

Emma Sharron, defending, said: “This is a young lady who has had a spectacular fall from grace - university educated, comes from a respectable family - she has been utterly disgraced by this.”

She told the judge: “She will of course be branded a paedophile for the rest of her life. She is a sex offender.”