A former ‘teacher of the year’ accused of having sex with a student when he was 12 denied the allegations today and told the court the 230 pages of racy texts they exchanged were part of ‘sexual therapy’ she was using to help him.

Married mother Ethel Anderson, 30, from Riverside, Florida, is accused of having a three-month sexual relationship with the boy when she was supposed to be tutoring him.

The alleged victim, now 14, who has not been named, testified today that the alleged abuse started four or five weeks into their tutoring sessions when she would kiss him and perform oral sex on him.

Married mother: Ethel Anderson, 30, from Riverside, Florida, is accused of having a three-month sexual relationship with a student when she was supposed to be tutoring him

Emotions: Anderson wept in court as her alleged victim talked about how he loved her like a girlfriend during their three-month affair

He told the court: ‘I felt like she was a girlfriend, I loved her and she said that I was her boyfriend and she loved me. She would rub on my legs, kiss on my ears, neck and stuff like that…We would tongue kiss.’

Anderson faces nine felony counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and turned down a 15-year prison deal followed by 15 years of probation

Anderson, who worked as a language arts teacher at Mango Elementary School, cried as she listened to the teen’s testimony and denied the charges when she took the stand.

When confronted about the 230 pages of racy text messages she said they were just sexual therapy that she was using on the ‘troubled student’ to motivate him.

She told the court: ‘At the time, with him struggling with school and having behavioral issues and anger issues, acting out at home and not being able to connect with his family, the way that he and his parents felt, that was my purpose. To gain his attention and, yes, I did it in an inappropriate way.’

The mother-of-one claims the boy would threaten her, telling her things like, ‘keep playing you’re gonna lose your child’.

The boy also told the court that he did not want to lose his virginity to a teacher and would tell her to stop, but she persisted because she ‘wanted him so bad’, ABC reports.

The parents of the young boy were suspicious of their son’s close relationship to the Anderson and tipped off police.

Wearing a wire, the boy’s mother later confronted Anderson, when she admitted having oral sex with him. The tape was played to the jury.

Accolade: In 2011, Anderson was named as Teacher Of The Year at Mango Elementary School in Florida, where she was a language arts teacher

In her testimony, Anderson testified she only admitted to sex acts in the secretly recorded confession by the boy’s mother, only because that is what she thought the mother wanted to hear.

Anderson faces nine felony counts of lewd and lascivious molestation.

The 30-year-old turned down a 15-year prison deal followed by 15 years of probation. The jury of three men and three women will now decide her fate.

She faces up to 30 years in jail.

Read more: Daily Mail