A FORMER Catholic school tutor who had sex with a 15-year-old student has collapsed twice during a hearing where she was sentenced to eight to 25 years in prison.

Abigail Simon’s sentence was delivered on Wednesday after she rejected a plea deal that could have put her behind bars for five months.

The 35-year-old former tutor at Catholic Central High School, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, pleaded for mercy during a tearful 10-minute statement.

ACCUSED TEACHER CLAIMS STUDENT RAPED HER

“I’m asking you to take a chance on me,” Simon, 35, told Kent County Judge Paul Sullivan, WoodTV reports.

She continued to maintain that the student, now 17, was the aggressor in the relationship, having previously accused the teenager of “forcing” her into having sex with him.

“I was overtaken by fear, scared and lost, felt like I was drowning,” Simon said on Wednesday. “I’m sorry I was not strong enough to get away from him.”

Simon’s version of events was rejected by jurors in late November, when they convicted her on three counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of accosting a child for immoral purposes.

The ruling was based on testimony by the victim and thousands of text messages, many of them explicit, between the teenager and Simon.

One of the text messages read: “I’m scared that you’re only 15.” Another said, “I’m just too old, as much as that stinks.”

During sentencing, the victim’s mother hit out at Simon’s defence for portraying her son as a rapist.

She said Simon “took advantage” of her son, who was “under her spell”, then talked him into taking the blame.

The mother told the judge her son “has experienced a lot of pain and suffering in his short life. A huge percentage of it was caused by Abigail Simon’s actions.”

“This theatre of the absurd has closed its curtain,” she said. “I ask you to be severe in your sentencing.”

The judge said Simon was not a predator and isn’t likely to reoffend, but that she had some “culpability” because she knew it was wrong.

Under Michigan law, the victim was too young to consent to sex.