A female teacher has been jailed for two years after admitting to having sex and taking drugs with a 15-year-old schoolboy.

The judge who sentenced Lucy Hayward, 30, told the English teacher she had abused her position as a pillar of society.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard how Hayward and the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began having sex and smoking cannabis together after the teacher befriended him last year.

Judge Michael Mander told the mother-of-two from Meole Brace, Shrewsbury: "You encouraged children to come to your house and plied them with drugs.

"You indulged in highly inappropriate sexual behaviour with a young boy who was so traumatised by it all that he left home.

"Anyone who behaved in this highly inappropriate manner can expect little mercy from any judge.

"Suppose you were a man and the victim was a girl. There would be no question whatsoever that custody would be imposed. Why should the gender make any difference?"

Mr Andrew Lockhart, prosecuting, said when police arrested Hayward at her home they found handcuffs, a truncheon, a vibrator, a sex video and a sex magazine.

Hayward was immediately suspended and last month sacked from her job at the grant-maintained Abraham Darby School in Telford, Shropshire.

At Shrewsbury magistrates in May, Hayward admitted indecent assault, possession of cannabis, and allowing her home to be allowed to smoke the drug.

Mr Lockhart told the court Hayward began meeting younger people after moving to Meole Brace.

These friendships would involve up to six young people going to her home and smoking cannabis with Hayward, the court was told.

Prior to meeting her victim she paid for a party of youngsters to go to a rave in Milton Keynes, Mr Lockhart said.

Witnesses told police how Hayward drove the car at great speed with so many people inside some had to cram into the vehicle's boot.

Shortly after the rave Hayward met the victim who started to visit her home.

Mr Lockhart said the boy began smoking drugs with Hayward and he told police they had made him "feel relaxed".

On one occasion Mr Lockhart said that while at the teacher's house the boy was groped.

Defending Simon Mills said Hayward suffered an unhappy childhood and a series of disastrous relationships in her adult life, including a one-year marriage.

He said: "She did not set out like a Pied Piper figure or child-catcher in order to obtain friendship of children to abuse them.

"She did not set out to seduce deliberately a young boy because that is her inclination. She does not have inclinations towards sex or sexual activities with youngsters."

Mr Mills said Hayward's mother had died when she was young and she had been sent to a boarding school which she had hated and where she had been sexually abused.

She had also tried to take her own life, the court heard. Mr Mills said: "The relationship with this boy has now left this woman not just locally notorious but nationally notorious. She is recognised in supermarkets.

"She is a registered sex offender out of a job and out of her profession. Her life is in ruins."