A TEACHING assistant whose life was left in ruins after a fling with a schoolboy is facing a potential prison sentence for running down a motorist while appearing "intoxicated" at the wheel.

Helen Turnbull, 36, lost her career, her marriage and contact with her children after becoming infatuated with a 16-year-old pupil at the school where she worked.

She escaped jail for seducing the boy but the ex-husband she cheated on expressed concerns about her escalating drinking as their marriage came to a bitter end.

Turnbull sent pictures of herself in lingerie to the boy, asked him what colour knickers she should wear ahead of a meeting and told him he would be a "legend" if he had sex with her on her desk at school.

Although she sent lewd sexual texts to him she was cleared of having sex with him in the back of her black convertible Mini in secret trysts on an industrial estate.

She admitted kissing him and was placed on the sex offenders register for seven years and given a four month suspended jail term for sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

However, magistrates heard she has breached the suspended sentence after smashing two vehicles, causing about £1,500 damage, and running down a woman in the village of Haswell, County Durham, where she lives.

Turnbull seemed intoxicated, refused to give police a specimen of breath for analysis and was abusive to witnesses as she sat behind the wheel of the Toyota Aygo she had been driving.

Magistrates at Peterlee, County Durham, declined to sentence her and sent the case to be dealt with at Teesside Crown Court.

Prosecutor Sarah Traynor told the bench that on the evening of July 15, Jacqueline Tobin noticed her car had a flat tyre and was pumping it up when she saw Turnbull's car approaching.

Mrs Traynor said: "She noticed a small black car, which struck her vehicle and then her, knocking her 10ft down the road. The car made no attempt to stop.

"Mrs Tobin suffered bruising to her shoulder, her thigh, her wrist and her little finger."

After the crash, Turnbull continued driving into a neighbouring street where she smashed into a Nissan Navara.

The owner saw Turnbull sitting in her car and a witness took a video where she appeared intoxicated through either drink or drugs and was abusive to one of the people who saw the accident.

Mrs Traynor said: "Helen Turnbull was heard to say 'I will pay for the damage don't ring the police.' She was arrested, however, on suspicion of being unfit to drive through drink or drugs.

"The breath test procedure was gone through and she refused to provide a specimen of breath when requested to do so."

Turnbull admitted failing to provide a specimen of breath and two counts of failing to stop following a road accident.

She will now go back to the same court where she received her suspended sentence.