A FOSTER mum who lured a teenage boy into a sexual relationship by grooming him with beer, cigarettes and PlayStation games has been jailed.
Vile Samantha Hesler abused the boy, then aged in his early teens, for three years in the 1990s.
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Former foster carer Samantha Hesler has been jailed for abusing a teenage boy Credit: Evening Gazette
A judge at Teesside Crown Court heard the defendant, now 50, often invited teenagers over to her home to "make friends" with her foster children.
During a series of meetings at the property - known to locals as a "party house" - she plied the youngsters with Budweiser and fags, Gazette Live reports.
Hesler then slipped into a bikini and joined them in a hot tub, it was heard.
At the time, she was married and living with her husband.
But in spite of being almost double her victim's age, she began abusing him.
GROOMED WITH BEERS
One witness caught the lad under her duvet, while the pair allegedly vanished together for hours on a camping trip, it was heard.
The victim's mother reportedly started to worry that her child was spending so much time visiting the defendant - and asked him to stop seeing her.
But it took years for him to bravely admit to his wife that he'd been groomed and assaulted.
And in a heartbreaking statement to a court today, he told of the devastating impact of Hesler's attacks.
"I was a child when the abuse first started. My innocence was taken away from me," he said.
VICTIM'S HORROR
He has since suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder and struggles with depression, flashbacks and nightmares.
"I stay at home most of the time," he told the court.
"I no longer have a social life and I don't work. I gave up my business because I was afraid people from my past may have judged me.
"I don't like to go out and I even distance myself from my parents and siblings, only seeing them on special occasions."
Hesler, of Great Broughton near Stokesley in Middlesbrough, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault.
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Judge Paul Watson told her: "Despite the age gap between you, you formed a sexual relationship with him."
He said the pair did not have full sex and Hesler is "unlikely to offend again".
The defendant was jailed for two and a half years and placed her on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
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Hesler has been jailed for the abuse Credit: Evening Gazette