A teaching assistant’s affair with an underage pupil was exposed when he caught a kiss she blew him from her classroom window, a court heard.
The schoolgirl’s mother also found a love note allegedly written by maths assistant Hamid Bhatti which read: ‘You were amazing last night as always.’
Bhatti, 24, is accused of grooming the 15-year-old with gifts before having sex with her more than a dozen times.
The girl, who was studying for GCSEs, developed a crush on him and they swapped numbers on Facebook, Taunton Crown Court heard.
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A teacher at the school in Yeovil, Somerset, raised the alarm when the girl was spotted blowing Bhatti a kiss out of the classroom window and he caught it and threw it back.
When challenged the two claimed it was just a joke, jurors were told. But they were already in a sexual relationship and, over the next eight months, Bhatti allegedly slept with the girl, who he met when she was 14, at least 14 times.
On one occasion Bhatti had sex with the girl, who was drunk after going to a party, on his bedroom floor while her teenage friend slept in his bed, prosecutors claimed.
He also plied her with gifts including a necklace, money and a cushion with ‘I love you’ written on it, the court heard.
Bhatti and the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were questioned multiple times by police but he persuaded her to lie to stop him from getting into trouble, the court heard.
The teaching assistant allegedly told the pupil he would ‘get away with’ sleeping with her if she told police she had claimed to be 16. In police interviews she initially denied having sex with Bhatti, but later said they slept together after she told him she was 16. The fifth time she was questioned by police, the teenager finally admitted that they had a relationship.
The girl said that they had sex ‘a lot – like, a lot, a lot’ during the relationship. She said: ‘He said that if I said I’d told him I was 16, we would get away with it.’
Cross examined by Kevin Metzger, defending, the girl admitted she actively pursued Bhatti and had been willing to do ‘whatever it took’ to talk to him.
The defendant denies five counts of sexual activity with a child at least 14 times between May 2014 and February 2015. He also denies abducting a child after he allegedly ignored an order made by police banning him from having any contact with the girl.
Prosecutor Lee Bremridge said: ‘The Crown says that he knew full well how old the girl was.’ The affair allegedly became sexual in May 2014 and Bhatti was sacked the next month after another teacher raised concerns.
The girl was later questioned by police when she turned up at school with a black eye and her mother was called in, the court heard.
But she said she and Bhatti had not had sex and the black eye was from tripping over, it was said. The prosecutor added: ‘The girl was clearly protecting them.’
In October 2014 the girl’s mother called the police after finding a handwritten note among her daughter’s things.
Bhatti allegedly wrote: ‘Hey baby, I’m sorry I had to leave this morning for work. You were amazing last night as always. I hope you get this message and leave me a note. Plan to see you soon. I love you. PS, don’t forget to go to the doctors.’ The couple still denied they were having an affair, but the note prompted police to issue Bhatti with an anti-abduction notice, prohibiting him from contacting the child. But he ignored the warning and was caught out after the teenager went missing in February 2015, the court heard.
Police went to his house in Yeovil and he told them he had not seen her for a long time. But officers later saw her leaving the property and found a condom with her DNA in the bedroom.
Bhatti, who currently lives in Rochdale, was arrested in June 2015 after the girl, who had now turned 16, told police the ‘whole truth’. He admits sleeping with her in February 2015 but denies knowing she was underage at the time. The trial continues.
Daily Mail