'I fell in love with foster son and we had sex': Woman, 57, admits indecent assault on boy, 15

Woman found guilty of one charge of indecent assault against teenager

Previously admitted five counts of sexual assault against another boy she fostered

A woman who had sex with her teenage foster son told a court 'I fell in love with him - I’m sorry.'



Jane Riches admitted one charge of indecently assaulting the boy after she accepted kissing him passionately when he was still 15 years old.

She was cleared by the jury on five other indecent assault charges in relation to the teenager but may still face jail having earlier admitted four other sex assault charges against a different teenage boy she had fostered.



Facing jail: Jane Riches admitted one charge of indecently assaulting a boy after she accepted kissing him passionately when he was still 15 years old

During her trial the twice wed woman said she had sex with the teenager on his 16th birthday and regularly after that. At the time she was married to a soldier.



But Riches, now 57, denied having any sexual contact with him before he was 16 saying all she did was kiss him and hold his hand when they went out walking her dog.

Riches denied five other charges of indecently assaulting her foster son when they lived in Windsor in Berkshire, between October 1988 and 1989 and a jury cleared her on all five counts.



Riches, from Drewsteignton, Devon, had denied the prosecutor’s suggestions that their relationship progressed sexually before they had full sex on his 16th birthday and regularly twice a week after that for two years.



She told the jury: 'I was very much in love with him. I found myself falling in love with him, and he with me, so I thought. I did nothing sexual with him before his 16th birthday.'



She accused him of making eyes at her after they kissed when he was 15 and before they had intercourse.



She said on his 16th birthday they had been watching a TV film when they started ‘kissing, cuddling, touching and became a bit passionate’.



Riches, who was in her 30s at the time, said: 'It just boomed, blossomed that night.'



She told the court that the victim, who claimed he was 15 when they first had full sex, was a ‘bit possessive and clingy’ and said their relationship ‘started with a kiss’.



She said they both agreed before anything sexual happened.



She also claimed the youth put his hand up her skirt in a private room at her workplace, touched her thigh and pleasured himself in front of her in her bedroom but said: 'He was a 15-16 year old horny male. I know I never touched him.'



Riches said she was aware it was illegal to have sex with a boy under 16 and said sex happened spontaneously on his 16th birthday.

