Tennis coach 'had affair with girl pupil'
A TOP female tennis coach from Solihull embarked on a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old pupil, a court has been told.
Claire Lyte, 29, faces five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a girl she coached at the Lawn Tennis Association's training academy in Loughborough between 2005 and 2006.
Lyte, a former tennis professional who was the LTA's young coach of the year in 2001, denies the allegations.
Opening for the prosecution, Peter Davies told the jury of eight women and five men that a consensual sexual relationship took place between Lyte, of Shirley, and the victim from Merseyside, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
He said: "The relationship between coach and student transcended the bounds of a normal relationship.
"And despite repeated warnings, the defendant continued.
"The Crown says the defendant was attracted to the victim and the attraction became mutual."
The jury will hear evidence from text messages and letters which the victim sent to Lyte and which were found in Lyte's bedroom at her parents' home in the West Midlands.
The defence will argue that all the allegations have been manufactured by the victim's mother, described at Liverpool Crown Court as "pushy and ambitious", who was upset about her daughter's time at the tennis academy coming to an end.
(Proceeding)
