Teacher is cleared of sleeping with pupil she kissed: Now meet her new lover, he's 12 years her junior... and she taught him too

• Mother-of-two admitted sending boy photo of herself in her underwear 
• Helen Turnbull, from County Durham, said she kissed and sexted him
• But 35-year-old defendant denied the brief relationship went any further
• Can be revealed she is currently in a relationship with another former pupil
• Source close to professional boxer Greg O’Neil, 23, confirmed Turnbull was his girlfriend

A married teaching assistant who kissed a schoolboy and sent him seductive messages walked free from court yesterday. Helen Turnbull’s marriage fell apart when it emerged that she had been having secret trysts in her Mini with a 16-year-old boy. It can now be revealed that the teaching assistant had a fascination with teenage boys, had previously been unfaithful to her husband with a youngster and is currently in a relationship with another former pupil – 23-year-old professional boxer Greg O’Neil. Turnbull, 35, sobbed in the dock yesterday as a judge told her that grooming the child at the Catholic secondary school in Durham had cost her a career and her family.  She was given a four-month suspended sentence and told to sign the sex offenders’ register after admitting kissing the boy. But she was cleared on charges relating to allegations she had sex with him. The jury was read a slew of provocative messages from Turnbull to the 16-year-old boy, in which she talked about ‘power sex’ and said kissing him was one of the perks of her job.Yet years before the affair with the pupil, suspicion had already been raised about her activity with children when her husband caught her kissing another teenager in the family home.

Ben Turnbull, 38, was left stunned when he found four boys in the house, one of whom was locked in an embrace with his wife in the kitchen. Mr Turnbull had planned to tell the court how he stumbled upon the incident but the judge ruled the evidence inadmissable as it did not have any direct bearing on the defendant’s behaviour with the teenager. Despite having a bitter argument about the incident, the couple continued their relationship and it was never reported to the authorities. The marriage came to an end when Mr Turnbull accused his wife of having an affair after he discovered a picture online of her and the boy at the centre of the trial. After a drunken night at her school’s prom, Turnbull changed her Facebook profile picture from one of her three-year-old daughter to an image of her ‘cuddling’ the 16-year-old.