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A teaching assistant accused of having sex with a 13-year-old is the victim of 'pernicious lies' fuelled by schoolboy fantasies about older women, a court has been told.

Louise Aspinall, 36, is alleged to have seduced the youngster while working at Swinton High School in Salford in 2013.

She denies seven charges of sexual activity with a child, reports Manchester Evening News.

In a fiery closing speech, Marsha Myers, defending, urged jurors to acquit Mrs Aspinall.

She said the mum had only ever shown a 'wholesome' interest in the boy - but had been falsely painted as a 'nymphomaniac' and a 'predatory Mrs Robinson.'

Miss Myers told the jury the accuser had told 'porky pies' because he wanted to impress his friends by saying he had had sex with a teacher.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

She said the 'toxic whispers' had 'explosive' consequences after teaching staff heard them and 'manipulated and railroaded' the boy to 'admit it'.

The 'genesis of the whole tragic psychodrama' came when the boy was teased by peers that 'Mrs Aspinall fancied him' and became 'tantalised' by the idea at a time when 'hormones were raging', Miss Myers claimed.

His evidence, she said, 'contained a raft of inconsistencies' and was comprised of crude phrases he had heard from an older boy and sex education classes.

And the defence lawyer went on to dismiss him as a 'teenage Hans Christian Andersen telling fairytales', with no awareness of their 'monumental gravity' because he had a lower than average IQ and 'severe emotional problems.'

"How few words it took - 'I slept with Mrs Aspinall'. From a ripple, a trickle, a tsunami grew", Miss Myers said.

Describing the 'phenomenon' of younger males' interest in women 'two or three times their age' as 'nothing new', Miss Myers added: "I would not be doing my client's case justice if I did not mention the acronym 'milf', which has entered into every day colloquial English language usage."

Criticising the prosecution for suggesting marital problems had led to the alleged offences, she said: "There's an inference Mrs Aspinall is some kind of nymphomaniac who is so unable to control her sexual urges she targets a 13-year-old boy.

"I ask you to jettison this suggestion, which is highly offensive to womankind.

"You, members of the jury, have the opportunity to put things right and see that justice is done - I ask you therefore, on each and every count to deliver verdicts of 'not guilty'."

The trial continues.