A female support worker who slept with a 16-year-old boy she was supposed to be caring for has been told by a judge to “grow up.”

25-year-old Kimberley Smith pleaded guilty to abusing a position of trust by engaging in sexual activity with the boy at her home after plying him with alcohol and cocaine.

Judge Stephen Everett told her that an eight month prison sentence was warranted but he suspended it for two years and placed her under supervision for two years “to help you grow up.”

She was also ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

The judge told Smith, of Grosvenor Road, Wallasey, that he did not accept she was remorseful and said, “I don’t think you understand the seriousness of what you did.”

She had tried to deflect blame from herself and “there was a hint of selfishness and self pity in her approach,” he said.

Judge Everett said her behaviour had been “wrong. Any reasonable right minded person would realise it was wrong.”

Liverpool Crown CAourt heard that Smith had been working at premises in Wavertree as a support worker and in October last year she had sexual intercourse with the vulnerable boy who was one of the residents.

Neil Gunn, defending, said that she had learnt “a salutary lesson” and is ashamed.

She had been depressed after the end of a ten-year relationship and had lost contact with her daughter though “nothing could excuse or justify her actions.”