A school worker allegedly urged a 15-year-old pupil to conceal her identity and erase their Instagram messages after grooming him, a court has heard.
Melanie Rock, 34, reportedly told the schoolboy she was “f***ed” if he answered questions about her, and instructed him to claim he had been at a skate park, jurors were told.
The alleged exchange followed an incident in which another teacher reportedly saw Rock take the boy to a fast-food restaurant for lunch before driving him to her home.
Rock is also accused of telling the teacher that the boy was her godson and asking him to repeat the same account.
The communication support assistant at Medina College, on the Isle of Wight, denies charges of meeting a child following sexual grooming and engaging in sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.
Isle of Wight Crown Court heard this week that Rock allegedly groomed the pupil by taking him out for meals and buying him expensive clothes.
Jurors were told she later took him to her home, where she allegedly showed him sex toys and “koala hugged” him on her bed, wrapping her arms and legs around him.
The court heard that another teacher had previously seen Rock dining with the pupil.
Melanie Rock, 34, is accused of grooming a 15-year-old pupil before taking him to her home, where she allegedly showed him sex toys and handcuffs
Melanie Rock is pictured outside Isle of Wight Crown Court, where she has denied charges linked to the alleged grooming of a 15-year-old boy
After learning that the school had contacted the boy the following day, Rock allegedly messaged him to say she feared losing her job.
The boy told Rock that staff knew he had “gone to McDonald’s with a teacher”. The restaurant was later corrected to Pizza Hut, and the pair began messaging about how the meeting had been discovered.
In a message read to the jury, Rock wrote: “WTF, and we didn’t go to McDonald’s, but f***, I’m f***ed, I’m going to be sacked now they found out.
“They are going to ask you questions: who was it, how do you know her, etc etc. If they know it was me, I’m f***ed.”
Rock then allegedly pressed the teenager not to identify her and to delete their Instagram messages or block her, the court heard.
One message said: “I beg you, don’t say my name, please keep saying you were at the skatepark.” Another read: “Please I beg, do not mention me, because I would be done, trust.”
The boy blocked Rock but kept the messages, which police later recovered, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Tim Devlin questioned Rock about the messages during cross-examination.
He asked: “What is that message about if it’s not a cry for help, ‘Don’t tell them it was me’?” Rock replied: “I don’t know.”
Earlier, defence barrister Eleanor Fargin had asked Rock why she told the boy to delete their messages. Rock gave the same answer: “I don’t know.”
Rock acknowledged she must have sent the messages but said she could not remember sending them or why.
She told the court she could not remember how her contact with the boy on Instagram began or whether she had been the first to message him.
She repeatedly told Mr Devlin she could not remember meeting the teenager outside school, collecting him in her car or arranging to see him during the October half-term.
She did accept that CCTV showed her with the boy at KFC.
Asked why she bought him food, Rock said: ‘If a kid tells me, “I’m hungry”, I’m not going to let them starve.’
She denied giving the teenager money, apart from possibly £1 for an amusement arcade, and denied buying him vapes.
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The court heard evidence that the boy’s phone had attempted to connect to Rock’s home wifi.
Rock said she could not remember meeting him and denied inviting him into her home that day.
She accepted that CCTV showed her at Pizza Hut with the boy.
She said she could not remember the visit but later described a ‘medical episode’ at the restaurant that day.
Rock also denied telling a Medina College teacher, Joe Murdoch, that the teenager was her godson when they encountered each other at Pizza Hut.
Mr Murdoch previously told the jury Rock said the boy was her godson, that she had told no one and did not want colleagues to think the situation was ‘weird’.
Rock maintained she had not said this and could not remember speaking to Mr Murdoch at his table.
The jury also heard further evidence concerning allegations that Rock had shown the teenager sex toys and lingerie in a drawer at her home.
Rock accepted that the bottom drawer in her bedroom contained nine sex toys, bondage shackles and lingerie.
However, she denied telling the boy to look inside the drawer or showing him any of the items.
She also denied telling him to ‘enjoy my room’ or inviting him into her bedroom to vape or call his mother.
Asked whether she had ‘koala hugged’ the boy, Rock replied: ‘No, hell no. Why would I hug a child apart from my own child?’
She responded, ‘No,’ when Ms Fargin asked: ‘Did you have a sexual interest in the child?’
Asked why she met the boy outside school, Rock said: ‘I was doing my job. I’m a mum, I care, I care too much. I was trying to keep an eye on him.’
She accepted that nobody at the school had instructed her to meet the teenager outside school.
Mr Devlin alleged Rock bought the boy two Trapstar tracksuits costing £355, the court heard. Rock said the tracksuits were presents for her cousin.
The prosecution questioned why the tracksuits were medium, the teenager’s size, when Rock’s cousin was only 5ft 2in tall, and the defendant said her cousin preferred wearing baggy tracksuits.
Asked by Mr Devlin how the boy knew about the tracksuits, Rock replied: ‘I don’t know.’
Rock also denied showing the teenager a photo of them on his phone or telling him she was buying the clothing for him.
During a police interview, Rock read a prepared statement denying she met the boy intending to have sex.
She accepted her behaviour had breached school policy but denied any criminal wrongdoing, the court heard.
Rock maintained she had not behaved sexually towards the boy and denied the allegations concerning physical contact in her bedroom while also denying having a sexual motive.
Ms Fargin asked Rock to clarify issues concerning her memory. Rock said her memory had been poor for a long time.
The court has heard that she has been medically diagnosed with both short and long-term memory difficulties and jurors have requested to see her medical records.
The trial continues.
