A HOCKEY coach and teaching assistant at a Worcestershire school had an affair with a girl pupil four years his junior, Worcester Crown Court was told.

James Boocock began it by sending "flirty" text messages and it progressed to sexual encounters at the school and at his home, said Michael Aspinall, prosecuting. After accepting an invitation to watch television at his house, the girl became alarmed when he came onto her sexually and she fled.

"She thought she was going to be raped," said Mr Aspinall.

Boocock, aged 23, of Arosa Drive, Malvern, admitted two charges of sexual activity with a child whilst in a position of trust.

He was given a 12-month community order with a requirement of 150 hours unpaid work. He has to register as a sex offender for five years.

Mr Aspinall said the pair met when she was 15 or 16 and Boocock was about 19.

When he was playing hockey against her, he would make suggestive remarks and she was flattered that an older person was taking an interest in her. She and other girls went out socialising with him and he began texting her at school.

One Sunday morning, they met behind the design and technical block. He pressed himself against her and she put her hand down his trousers. In August, 2005, she went to his house to watch the Ashes cricket. She started to massage him after he complained about a stiff shoulder.

He turned towards her, pushed her down on the sofa and lay on top of her. He fondled her breasts but she told him she liked him but not in that way. She made an excuse and left crying and upset. She later needed counselling.

Mr Aspinall said that Boocock had been warned about inappropriate behaviour in the summer of 2006. When arrested, Boocock denied sexual encounters but said he had taken in interest in the girl because she seemed depressed.

Andrew Evans, defending, said Boocock was sexually immature and had been having treatment over the past 18 months. He was a man of good character and was now working in a factory. Judge Andrew Geddes described his behaviour as "a terrible breach of trust" by someone in a position of authority.

There had been an inappropriate degree of intimacy but to his credit he ceased the sexual attack at his home when she became distressed.