A TEACHER at a school who had sex with a pupil in a parked car has claimed she was the victim of abuse as a teenager.

A lawyer for Eppie Sprung Dawson, 27, who taught the 17-year-old pupil at a school in Dumfries, said she was the victim of an assault by a man 29 years her senior when she was aged between 13 and 18.

She was appearing at Dumfries Sheriff Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to breaching her position of trust and was told she would not be jailed for the offence.

Lawyer David Finnie said she had sought counselling for the abuse incidents at university, but there were no records available.

Dawson's career and marriage to the son of a former solicitor-general have been wrecked by the incident last December when police caught her with the pupil in a lay-by near the town, he added.

However, Mr Finnie pointed out that the pupil was over 16.

Dawson, of Dumfries, sat pale and tense as her background was outlined.

She was then close to tears as Sheriff George Jamieson indicated that she would not go to prison.

Dawson, who had been the pupil's English teacher for four years, has been placed on the sex offenders register for a period of time to be deter- mined when sentence is finally imposed.

The court had previously heard the two were spotted by police officers in a parked car partly naked after they had met near the school.

Dawson had until the incident been married for three years to Ranald Dawson, the son of the late Lord Dawson, a former Solicitor General and Supreme Court judge in Scotland.

Sheriff Jamieson told her that she had given into temptation and committed adultery, and had already been punished through the wrecking of her marriage and career at the council-run school.

He said he was considering a community-based sentence, but wanted to establish first if she could receive appropriate counselling and deferred sentence until July 10.