Youth club worker who became pregnant after 'wholly inappropriate' relationship with teenage boy spared jail
Annie Hall met the schoolboy at a bus station and then proceeded to sex with him in a skate park, a recreation ground and in a bush.
A former youth club worker who became pregnant after a “wholly inappropriate” relationship with a teenage boy was spared jail on Tuesday.
Listen to this article
The 21-year-old Annie Hall met the schoolboy at a bus station and then proceeded to sex with him in a skate park, a recreation ground and in a bush.
The two reportedly discussed names for their baby before she ended their relationship and got back together with her ex-boyfriend.
She was ultimately spared from an immediate prison sentence for the abuse, due to a judge’s verdict that she was "almost certainly operating emotionally at a younger age" due to being abandoned by her birth parents as a child.
Hall, who previously worked at Warrington Youth Zone, was 19 when she began a relationship with the victim, who was aged between 14 and 15.
Read more: Man, 21, jailed after sexually assaulting teenage girl at private members’ club
Read more: Police worker jailed after trying to arrange sexual activity with child
She reportedly met the boy at Warrington Bus Interchange, where the two exchanged Snapchat details, Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutor Martyn Walsh detailed how this resulted in the pair meeting up again, after they “kissed and hugged” on this first occasion, before having sex at Bennetts Recreation Ground two days later.
Walsh said they went on to have sexual intercourse on "10 or more occasions in total" before Hall's arrest, including at an abandoned skate park and in a bush in Oakwood Park.
Hall’s crimes came to light when she became pregnant with the teenage boy’s child, but she is subsequently said to have suffered a miscarriage.
Police found references to potential baby names on their phones, as well as “declarations of love expressed by both parties”.
The victim went on to tell police that he had “begun to argue” with Hall towards the end of the abuse, and that Hall "would go mad and start kicking off" if he did not reply to her text messages.
She broke up with the boy and rekindled things with her previous boyfriend after telling him she "loved them both" but planned to get together with her ex.
Hall admitted seven counts of sexual activity with a child and was handed a 24-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. She has no previous convictions.
Delivering his sentencing remarks, Judge Dennis Watson KC said her previous work at a youth zone was an “unattractive feature” of the case, although she was not employed there when she met the boy.
He said: “The relationship developed quickly, and it soon became sexual and involved sexual intercourse, this occurring on 10 or more occasions. So this is repeated offending. As a result of this, you became pregnant.”
Judge Watson said Hall’s psychological report showed she had emotional and developmental issues and was “almost certainly operating emotionally at a younger age” than her 19 years.
He added: “There is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. There is not such a high risk of reoffending or harm that it is necessary to impose an immediate sentence. There is strong personal mitigation.”
Hall was ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work and up to 25 rehabilitation activity days. She was also given a five-year restraining order and a sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.