A woman who groomed a "lonely" young teenage boy into having sex with her told him she wanted to get pregnant by him – before trying to claim she was being manipulated and "he had all the control".

Lucy Jayne Hambley, aged 39, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual activity with a young teenage boy.

Truro Crown Court heard how she took advantage of the "lonely" boy by first beginning a friendship with him before making advances on him.

She encouraged him to drink alcohol and smoke, before kissing him.

This subsequently progressed into sexual intercourse, with the prosecution saying: "He told her to stop but she just ignored him.

"[The victim] said she didn't use a condom on him and kept telling him she loved him and wanted to get pregnant by him.

"Prior to his he had never had sex before."

Afterwards he went to play on the X-box and afterwards she invited him to stay for tea before he went home to his parents.

This continued on a number of other occasions.

"If he tried to say no she would say, 'If you love me accept it'," added the prosecution.

Hambley also showed the victim photographs of her naked, which she said she sent to men on dating websites.

The court was told that one on occasion a neighbour of Hambley's had knocked on the door, only for it to be opened by the boy in a dressing gown.

Hambley then appeared, also in a dressing gown, and both appeared to have "love bites on their necks" on opposite sides.

The neighbour questioned this on another occasion, and described Hambley as becoming "quite panicked", saying it was from an adult male.

However, the neighbour contacted Childline to make an anonymous report.

The boy "did not have the courage to tell anyone" initially, said the prosecutor, but eventually confided in his mother, who "had suspicions."

However, his parents "didn't know whether to report this to the police" and it was not until the boy told a social worker that police became properly involved.

Hambley was arrested and initially denied any wrongdoing, but forensic examination of her duvet found semen that was identified as being the same DNA as the boy.

In a victim impact statement the teenager said: "I don't see myself ever being happy again. It has destroyed me. I have changed everything about myself, and nothing for the better.

"I have self-harmed and go weeks without sleep. I took overdoses with the intention to take my own life."

He added that he now has issues trusting anyone, particularly women, and that without his family members he would have "nothing to live for."

In mitigation for Hambley, the court was told she had traumatic experiences in her childhood.

"She was a lady who was lonely and unhappy, suffering from anxiety and depression.

"She has succumbed to her desire, borne out of loneliness," said her defence lawyer, who added: "She found it difficult to accept the extent of what had happened."

At one point during the sentencing the defendant was warned by Judge Anna Richardson that "she does herself no favours at all in playing to the public gallery."

Later the judge told Hambley there was "a significant degree of denial," adding: "There is very distorted thinking, that he had all the control and manipulated you.

"You were the adult in this situation."

Hambley, from a town in east Cornwall, was sentenced to nine months, five years and three months, seven and a half years and six years in prison for the respective charges, to run concurrently, meaning she will serve a total of seven and a half years.

She must serve two thirds of this in prison before being considered whether she is eligible for release to serve the remainder on licence.

Hambley will also be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life.