ALL she wanted was for her daughter to do well in her studies.

So the Hong Kong mother asked one of her daughter's primary school teachers to give private tuition when she went to secondary school.

Unknown to the mother, she was sending her daughter on a path to ruin.

The teacher, Chu Chi Wah, got so close to the girl, known only as X, that he had sex with her 280 times over a three-year period.

On Monday, Chu, 38, was sentenced to 10 years' jail after being convicted of 11 counts of having sex with a child.

X is now 17. Chu taught her physical education and maths when she was in primary school.

When she went to secondary school, Chu initially tutored her several times a week. Then he met her daily from Monday to Friday, reported South China Morning Post.

They would sometimes have sex after the tuition sessions. On weekends, he would take her on jogs, after which she would stay overnight at his home where Chu would have sex with her.

Madam Justice Maggie Poon Man Kay said the teacher had used the student's naivety to assault her in a way that her mother could not have imagined even in her nightmares, adding, 'the defendant's actions are a parent's nightmare'.

Chu started having sex with X many times from January 2004, when she was 12, until November 2006.

He had pleaded not guilty. Earlier, Chu was acquitted of one count of having sex with a child and one count of intending to induce her to have an abortion.

X's mother told the court she grew suspicious after the teacher called her to say he and her daughter had developed feelings for each other.

Last year, X told her boyfriend of her past. The boyfriend then took her to make a police report.

A report showed that X still recalls what happened then. She asks herself continually why she could not stop the abuse and has low self-esteem.

In August 2004, she discovered that she was three months' pregnant. Chu then took her to have an abortion.

Following this, Chu's sexual urges intensified, reported Apple Daily, and they had sex two to three times a week.

X stopped having tuition sessions with Chu in late 2006, after almost three years of 'sex without love'.

The judge said the events had affected her perception of relationships, and if they had not happened, she would have led a happy life.

Chu accused X of lying and attempting to frame him. Madam Justice Poon said that was like rubbing salt into the wound.

Reports on Chu showed he had no psychological problems, but that he was emotionally blank, has a limited capacity to handle stress and was gloomy, the judge said. The reports said Chu had a medium chance of reoffending.

Chu's lawyer, Mr Richard Wong Tat Wah, produced 46 letters from students, parents and Chu's colleagues to plead for leniency.

The letter writers, which included a headmaster and a pastor, described Chu as a caring, hard-working educator with a passion for teaching, who made academic material interesting and did not give up on his weaker pupils.

Having sex with a child under the age of 13 carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, the judge said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.