Mum seduced 12-year-old boy, court told

Claire Coxon, 21, kissed and fondled the youngster before dragging him into bed, Tees-side Crown Court was told.

Afterwards, when she asked his age, he confessed: "I'm only 12," it was said.

The single mother-of-one, of Joicey Court, Hartlepool, first met the boy when he was living with his mother at a women's refuge in Middlesbrough.

Miss Coxon became friendly with the family, and when she moved out into a new home in Diamond Road, she asked if the schoolboy could go around and help her decorate.

The court heard how MissCoxon bought the 12-year-old cigarettes and told him she would pay him £30 to help wallpaper her kitchen and bedroom.

But as the youngster stood on a kitchen chair with brush in hand, it was alleged Miss Coxon first fondled the youngster and then asked him for sex.

In a video interview played to the jury, the schoolboy told how he assured the defendant that he was 15 only days before they had sex in August 1999.

When asked by police how he felt afterwards, the blazer wearing schoolboy said: "I just thought, now I'm not a virgin."

He told police that when Miss Coxon had groped him and they went upstairs that she asked for sex and he agreed.

He said: "It was my second day there and she told me to go upstairs. I thought I was going to do some more decorating, but she asked me if I wanted sex.

"She kept asking me, so I said yes. She took her clothes off and I took mine off and we had sex on the mattress.

"It lasted ten minutes. I told her I was 12 and I stopped because it wasn't right - she was 20."

He later said Miss Coxon had told him to say nothing about the sex session.

Christopher Attwooll, prosecuting, said that the youth was at first reluctant to complain about Miss Coxon.

Mr Attwooll told the jury that as the youth was only 12 at the time of the alleged offence between July and September 1999, he could not consent to sex.

Miss Coxon denies indecent assault and the trial continues.