Married care worker guilty of inciting boy at children's home into sexual relationship

Daily Record

a day ago

Lindy Leah 'fell in love' with a teenage boy living at the children's home where she worked as deputy manager.
A care worker has been found guilty of inciting a teenage boy at the children's home where she worked into a sexual relationship.
Lindy Leah, 44, was said to have "fallen in love" with the youngster, who lived at the St Helens home where she was deputy manager.
Liverpool Crown Court heard she wore inappropriate and revealing outfits around him and sent a string of WhatsApp messages including one asking him "for a love bite" and another encouraging him to go missing so they could have a drug-fuelled "night away".
Leah, of Capesthorne Road, Orford, Warrington, denied any wrongdoing, claiming she saw herself as a "mother figure" to the boy as his key worker, reports Wales Online.
However, a jury found her guilty of being a person in a position of trust who caused or incited a child to engage in sexual activity.
The jury of six men and six women returned their verdicts after deliberating yesterday morning, August 8. Leah was remanded in custody until sentencing next month.
Jurors were told Leah bombarded the boy with messages, at one point telling him she was "proper paranoid" that she had "lost him to a slag" before adding: "If you never met me then your life would be better. I miss you so much. All I want is for me and you to have a night away from everyone, just us. So if I wake up from these tablets and wine, then we will."
Leah then went on to add: "Do you wanna go MSC [missing from care]? I love you so much. Can I book somewhere for me and you on Friday? Red and silky with some balloons and flake."
Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, told the court that "balloons" was a "colloquial term" for the class C drug nitrous oxide. In a further message, Leah said to the teen: "Just listened to a song and it made me cry. Stupid love songs. It made me think of you, then it made me cry. I won't be listening to that again."
A former colleague of Leah's, who the ECHO has chosen not to name for legal reasons, was also called to give evidence. Appearing from behind a screen in the witness box, she recalled an incident during her first shift at the home and said: "As I went into one of the staff bedrooms, she was in there, Lindy Leah and the young person.
"The young person was laying across the bed with Lindy Leah in the bedroom. I couldn't believe my eyes [The boy ] was on his phone, as if it was normal.
"I was just dismayed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I knew the protocol of a young person being in a member of staff's bedroom. It was not supposed to happen, full stop. I tried to speak to Lindy Leah to say it was inappropriate. She told me he's always in there, he looks comfortable and no one else has a problem. I was very concerned."
The witness described Leah's behaviour as "unnaturally friendly and excitable".
She said: "It was like you haven't seen a friend for a long time and you get excited. It was like that continually. It was like he was her best friend. It was so unprofessional."
Asked whether she also had "concerns about the way she dressed" in work, the witness replied: "Almost every time I was working with her, absolutely. Her physical appearance, she always wore revealing clothes that were not suitable for a care home and for a member of staff looking after young people.
"There was one type of suit she had, different colour of bodysuits. It's like a Lycra, all in one. It's skin tight. You could see she wasn't wearing a bra, you could see when she was wearing a thong and you could tell when she wasn't wearing either."
The carer described one occasion where the boy was present in a staff room, saying: "Lindy, went 'oo, [ boy's name], look, I've got no knickers, I've just had a shower and forgot to bring clean knickers'. She pulled her suit up. You could see the outline of her vagina. She went 'oo, look, you can even see my nipples as well'. He was laughing."
The woman went on to recount another incident where she had been painting one of the residents' bedrooms, saying of this: "Lindy opened the door and leant through. On her breast, she got some paint on her jumper.
"There was a long corridor. She looked out and said, '[ boy's name], I've got paint on my top' and pulled her jumper off to reveal a cami top. She went 'oo, look' and started wobbling her belly and breasts to him."
The witness was then questioned over a holiday which apparently Leah went on in order to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary, but said of this: "She did not want to go. She said she didn't love her husband and only married him for his money, her son is a spoiled brat.
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"She said to her daughter on her phone, I just wish she'd die. She said she didn't want to go because she'd miss [the boy ]."
When Leah was interviewd by detectives after concerns came to light, she "denied any improper behaviour".
When Leah was released on bail under conditions not to contact the boy, the two were spotted together weeks later beside a white Audi car at Walton Hall and Gardens in Warrington by a fellow care worker.
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In her evidence, Leah was asked by her counsel Rebecca Filletti asked what training she had received prior to taking on the job. She told the court: "In my interview, I told them I was a mother. My training was based on being a mum.
"I seen the kids as my children. I wanted to show them how kids thrive with a good mother around them. That's the only way I knew to be. We tried to make it as homely as possible. That's what we wanted for the children, to make it as much as a home environment as we could.
"I just took on this role of his mother. I really seen him as my son, my kid. I adored him. We were little besties. We were a little team.
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"It was incredibly naïve and unprofessional of me to behave like that. I just got incredibly emotionally involved and looked at him like a son. He seemed so unloved by everyone around him. He just didn't have a relationship with his family. He had no one. He seen me as his mother. I took on that role and really looked out for him."
Speaking of the incident regarding the paint on her jumper, Leah said: "I don't recall it. [Her colleague] was painting, so it could have happened. I would have took my jumper off. I always wear vest tops under my clothes. I wouldn't have been wiggling my body around to anybody."
In relation to the accusation concerning the bodysuit, Leah added: "Never. I do believe, if there was other staff present, somebody would have said something. I would never do that."
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When referred to a series of stays at caravan parks in Cheshire and North Wales with the boy, Leah stated: "It was organised professionally, through the company. It was a school holiday. He wouldn't go camping. He agreed to do this. He wanted to go for steak, he wanted to do something nice."
When probed about her WhatsApp messages with the boy, she added: "I'd been drinking. It was unprofessional, and I shouldn't have been messaging [the boy ].
"I wanted to take him away, get him away from the things he was doing, the people he was around. I wanted him to have a nice night away and have some food, just getting away from all the things he was doing, just me and him.
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"I thought it was best he went with me, so he could be himself. Just to get him away and let him be a kid. I was just trying to look out for him. I didn't mean to say missing from care. I'd been drinking all day. I didn't need to take him from care."
Of the "red and silky with some balloons and flake" message, Leah said: "I was joking. I have a dry sense of humour. He knows how I felt about drugs. I meant wine. I was being silly, dramatic. He knows I'm joking. I was making fun of balloons, is it nitrous oxide?"
Leah also denied taking drugs with the boy, and when asked whether there was "any intention for this trip to be sexual", replied: "Absolutely not. No."
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Having been shown a picture which was recovered from her phone and showed the teen holding a balloon in his mouth, she told jurors: "[The boy ] doesn't particularly like his teeth. That's the only picture he would let me take, of him blowing up a balloon."
Ms Filletti went on to ask, "in general terms, what do you think of those messages?". Leah replied: "I think they're completely unprofessional and inappropriate. I think I acted on fear. I think I was acting like a mother, or we were friends.
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"[The boy ] didn't have anybody that cared about him. He was so alone. He just attached himself to me. I'm just a really loving person. I just loved him and really looked out for him. I thought he was my son. I thought he was my little friend. I had such an emotional, maternal attachment to him. It's inappropriate. It's not ok.
"My heart was in the right place. I actually thought I was doing the best job by him. There's a reason why these rules were put in place. I broke them. I thought I was doing right by him. I thought I was showing him unconditional love by a mother. I was just digging holes."
Of another message, in which Leah suggested she would return the boy's confiscated mobile phone "for a love bite", she said: "I'm joking with him. I think I'm funny. It was just banter. I don't want a love bite off a 15-year-old boy, I have a husband. He was covered in love bites, we'd all been making fun of him. I was just referring to it and laughing about it."
Leah was then referred to the WhatsApp exchange concerning the "love song", which she said was Waterfalls by TLC. She added: "I tried to make him listen to it. It's about a son who keeps doing wrong things and choosing the wrong path."
Leah accepted that she had met with the boy in breach of her bail conditions, but said of this: "I seen him as my son. He was devastated and he needed me. He begged to see me. He'd been beaten up. He was scared. He needed his mum, and he considered me to be his mum. I shouldn't have gone."
Leah then appeared to become tearful as she said: "I just wanted everyone to see that I really seen [the boy ] as my son, and I wanted to have my opportunity to show everybody that I know I was unprofessional, I know I was dramatic and I know I was ridiculous, but I never incited any sexual activity with [the boy ]. I just really, really thought I was his mum. I thought I was helping him."