'You deserve to go to prison for what you did,' Judge Watson QC told her

She would create scenarios so they could be alone together, court heard

The grandmother who took the virginity of a 15-year-old boy and used him as her 'sexual plaything' has walked free from court, despite admitting to grooming him.

Marie McCarthy, now 62, came face-to-face with the boy she abused in 1986 for the first time in nearly 30 years yesterday.

The man, who did not tell the police about the incidents until last year, stormed out of the courtroom at Liverpool Crown Court when the judge let her walk free.

Marie McCarthy (pictured), now 62, came face-to-face with the boy she abused in 1986 for the first time in nearly 30 years yesterday

Judge Denis Watson QC told the court how McCarthy of Hurst Park Drive, Huyton, seduced her friend's son over the course of a six-week summer holiday nearly 30 years ago, the Liverpool Echo reported.

He said: 'As you look back now at your behaviour then as a mature 33-year-old towards a 15-year-old boy I hope you realise how shameful and grotesque it was.

'I hope you now realise your behaviour has cast a shadow over his life for the last 29-and-a-half years. An appalling shadow which had had a real impact upon him.

'You manipulated him for your own sexual advantage, you groomed him. You knew the riot of emotions he, as a 15-year-old, was going through as adolescence and puberty sent him one way and then the other. You used him as your sexual plaything.'

'You deserve to go to prison for what you did, it was not a one off but a string of different sexual acts against him that summer.

'The very fact that he came forward last year to tell someone tells you it is not something he has been able to leave behind at all.'

But the judge added that he took her various health problems including angina and alcoholism, good character and guilty pleas into account.

Judge Denis Watson QC told Liverpool Crown Court (pictured) how McCarthy of Hurst Park Drive, Huyton, seduced her friend's son over the course of a six-week summer holiday nearly 30 years ago

He sentenced McCarthy to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. McCarthy admitted to four offences of indecent assault and was placed under supervision and ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for ten years.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, told the court how McCarthy visited the boy's mother at the start of the summer holidays in 1986 and wolf-whistled at him as he came down the stairs in just a towel.

As he left the room, the boy heard McCarthy telling his mother that if she went after him, 'he would go up the stairs as a boy and come down as a man'.

She then followed him into the bathroom where he was taking a bath, grabbed his private parts and, after making a sexual remark, she left laughing.

He was looking after her young son at her Huyton home a week later when she sat near him wearing a tight night-dress, and began stroking parts of his body. She helped him undress before they had sex.

Mr Bonner said: 'He did not fancy her but did not know how to stop what was happening.

McCarthy then 'orchestrated' around 30 other occasions when they were alone for various acts of sexual activity - and he felt coerced into taking part, the court heard.

He eventually told his mother's partner who said he would sort the mess out, but McCarthy continued to abuse him.

She would say things like 'I have to have you' and 'I can't stop myself'.

Teresa Loftus, defending, said that McCarthy had been forced to tell her children and grandchildren what she had done almost three decades ago and she was 'genuinely ashamed.'