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A CHARITY worker has run off with a vulnerable teenage boy in her care.

The Scottish Social Services Council struck off Louise McHugh, 35, over her affair with the 16-year-old.

But McHugh – the boy’s key worker at a Lanarkshire-based residential home run by Wilderness Experiences – refused to accept she was wrong.

She said she is “in love” and has set up home with the youth, who is described as “vulnerable” and “mixed up”.

The pair got together last June as he spent a 17-week placement with the charity.

They spent their first weekend together having sex at locations across Scotland – while McHugh lied to bosses about visiting a friend in Wales.

The teenager, who has a history of criminal behaviour, was transferred to Wilderness Experiences because officials at his previous placement could not control him.

McHugh’s seniors were bewildered when a relative of the child insisted he was having a relationship with a staff member after leaving the company’s care in June last year.

They were horrified to discover that McHugh, of Carlisle, had been whisking the boy off to Glasgow hotels for sex, paying for the rooms on her credit card.

McHugh resigned from her job when police probed her about the trysts after the pair spent a night having sex at a campsite near Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire.

The criminal charges against her were dropped but she refused to attend an inquiry by the SSSC in Dundee.

Officials struck her off in her absence, describing her as a “risk to the public” after emails about the relationship were read out by SSSC solicitor Erin Wilkie.

Speaking about the relationship, McHugh wrote: “It’s not inappropriate, it’s consensual and we are still together today.

“It wasn’t deliberate. You can’t help who you fall in love with. We are

making a life for ourselves. I admit misconduct but I have no regrets.”

McHugh refused to disclose her address to the SSSC because she claimed she and her lover wished to be “left alone”. It is not known if they are living together.

McHugh was found guilty of seven misconduct charges.

She was caught contacting the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on several occasions after he left her care, despite being warned not to speak to him.

When she received a frantic call from his current care provider after he disappeared to meet her for sex, she told them she had no idea where he was.

Claire Houghton, director of Carlisle-based Wilderness Experiences, said she thought McHugh’s conduct was “totally inappropriate”.

Appearing as a witness at the hearing, she said: “Lou was placed in a position of trust. We’re not dealing with a normal young boy here. He is very vulnerable.

“He was not in a position to consent – this is an abusive relationship.”

SSSC solicitor Wilkie said: “There have been no genuine or timely expressions of regret, no apologies and no acceptance of the seriousness of this situation.”

Panel chair David Hughes Hallet said: “Removal from the register is the only appropriate sanction.”