Aveesha Ahsan, 33,(pictured outside Inner London Crown Court on November 21) allegedly sexually assaulted the 16-year-old after telling her she had 'attractive and alluring' eyes

A female teacher accused of sexually assaulting a pupil claims that her written marriage proposal to her asked: 'Will you merry me,' not 'marry', a court heard.

Aveesha Ahsan, 33, from Lewisham, said she had only innocently kissed the girl, who she regarded as her 'sister'.

The teacher insisted the handwritten note which has been taken to read 'marry' is innocent too and explained to merry her meant 'to be friends'.

She told Inner London Crown Court: 'It is about the friendship, but in the end I made a nasty joke, "Will you merry me".'

'It is like we are friends, you are my sister and we can be friends so at the end I wrote down, "Will you merry me".

'Merry - it means, will you accept my asking you to be friends.

'I am Muslim, how can I marry her? We do not do things that way.

'Because sometime I feel like she wants to come close, she wants to get close to me - always asking me, can I sit with you.

'She was crying and I was asking: 'Well did you not understand this? It is a friendship letter.

'She was tearful, she was crying because of the word "merry".'

When the girl explained she thought it was a marriage proposal Ashan asked: 'Are you mad, we are female, we are Muslims, how?'

Ahsan said she emigrated from Lahore, Pakistan in 2011 to pursue a Masters degree at Queen Mary University and said life in England was lonely.

She said: 'I live here no friends, it is very lonely time, people around you are always lying, cheating and it was very depressing.

'I came from a lot of people in my house, but people here - no interactions, they are not friendly.

'She also wants some friendship, I sometimes feel she's like me because it happens to me as well - the loneliness.

'So she is also like that, I need something and she needs something - why not be friends.'

She said the teenager confided in her about how she cut herself and felt disgusted when eating in front of others.

Ahsan said: 'We discussed quite different things, quite different stories. I think we discuss because I was concerned because her mind is always somewhere else.

'She has told me that people call her slut, called her stupid. She told me: "I am cutting myself".

'I said: "Tell me where exactly you are cutting yourself," she took my hand and showed me on the back of her leg a big bandage.

'I told her you can't do this, as a Muslim this is a very bad thing.

'I discussed with another teacher Mr Assam and he said kids in this country are doing this kind of thing - this isn't Pakistan.'

Ahsan is accused of assaulting the girl by forcibly hugging and kissing her but the teacher demonstrated to the court how she had planted a kiss on the girl's forehead.

She said: 'I rubbed her arm and kissed her head and said you are my sister.'

The teacher used her hand to demonstrate to the court how she had kissed the girl in the temple region of her head with a closed mouth.

Previously, the trial heard Ahsan made jokes with the girl about 'thrusting' after the teenager repeatedly asked her not to.

The maths tutor wrote to her pupil: 'Can I tell you a dirty joke? My mind is really dirty.

'In the word trusting put 'H' in between 'T' and 'R.'

Jurors heard the teenager told her tutor about how she cut herself and felt disgusted by eating in front of others in a series of messages between them.

The maths tutor said: 'Go then do it, do it one more time again and I will cut worse and further than you.

'Trust me you are beautiful, but you need to lose some fat.'

She wrote to the girl: 'It is so nice that you said read Quran and make Dua - but I am having my period now so I cannot.

Ahsan made jokes with her about 'thrusting' after the teenager repeatedly asked her not to, Inner London Crown Court(which she is pictured outside) heard

'My intention is just to be close to you, not to teach. Do not say something c**p OK? Then that will hurt me.'

The pupil replied: 'I don't want to hurt you, I am just going to keep quiet I didn't want to hurt you.

'I think I am just going to go offline, I am so tired I did not want to fight with you.'

Ahsan wrote: 'That's what you always do, run away. Just trust me please. My heart becomes restless for you, where are you? Please don't cry.'

Ahsan claimed that she loved the girl like a little sister but made the pupil uncomfortable with her sexually charged behaviour.

She told the teen to keep their conversations private and not to tell her family about giving her kisses.

Ahsan said: 'I can feel sometimes what you are doing in your house, I don't know about you.

'I get strong feelings that you are thinking about me, I am thinking about you a lot.

'You are like my centre of gravity, I am revolving around you.'

The police seized four separate devices which the teacher used to bombard the youngster with messages, after the complainant tried blocking the older woman.

Ahsan, of Lewisham, appeared at Inner London Crown court wearing a blue headscarf.

She denies sexual assault and sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

The trial continues.