A mother volunteering as a prison counsellor had a volatile affair with a teenage inmate that ended in him hanging himself.

Anita Setz told an inquest Anthony Dunne, 19, begged for her phone number when he was released on licence from Rochester Young Offenders' Institution.

Within weeks, they were having sex - but the relationship spiralled out of control when Anthony returned late to his probation hostel.

Fearing he would be jailed again, Anthony - who had a psychiatric disorder - fled and lived with Ms Setz, then 43, for three weeks.

While he was there, he ran out of his anti-psychotic drug and beat her up. She escaped by leaping from an upstairs window.

Anthony was re-arrested and took his own life in the Rochester young offenders' institution, despite being on hourly suicide watch.

Ms Setz, who was in surgery for more than five hours, came home to find blood and the words "you shag clients" daubed on her walls.

She told an inquest jury she met Anthony when he was serving a sentence for actual bodily harm and gave him counselling on behalf of a charity called Starting Point.

Ms Setz, who was divorced and had two sons then aged 13 and 15, said Anthony talked mainly about his ex-girlfriend during their sessions and begged for her phone number when they finished.

"I think at the time I was actually quite flattered by his advances," she said. "He was really humorous, he made me cry with laughter."

Ms Setz started visiting Anthony near his probation hostel in Basildon, Essex, every fortnight.

"He was attracted to me, he made it clear," she said.

The first time she brought Anthony to her village home near Tunbridge Wells, he was friendly and got on well with her children.

At the end of August 2004, she dropped him back 40 minutes after curfew to the hostel. He fled, paranoid he would be sent back to jail.

"I said 'I will come back and get you but only if you will agree that you will get in touch with your probation officer tomorrow'," she said.

The next day was a bank holiday and by Tuesday he was convinced he would be imprisoned.

Ms Setz said: "I didn't contact anyone because I thought number one, the repercussions for him, and number two, the repercussions for me."

She said he was happy at first, but became more paranoid.

"He was growing really suspicious about what I was doing, where I was and whether I was likely to call the police," she said.

Events came to a head on September 20, 2004, when the pair went to the cinema to see Collateral Damage.

Anthony drank heavily and, when they got home, Ms Setz's friend arrived and took her sons into her car to escape, the jury heard.

Anthony followed her as she tried to chase the car and headbutted her. As she tried to get help, he punched and beat her.

Eventually she distracted him and jumped from her bedroom window, still in high heels.

Nick Brown, counsel for Anthony's family, told her: "You knew, didn't you, that you had to maintain professional boundaries?"

She admitted she had been in the wrong, but said: "It isn't uncommon for counsellors or clinicians to develop strong emotional ties and feelings for the clients and vice versa.

"That 19-year-old was dangerous, he was courageous, forthright, opinionated – he was not just a naive innocent 19-year-old lad."

?Ms Setz tried giving counselling again after the incident but soon gave it up, she told the jury.

She is now working as a self-employed horse box driver and a valeter of mobile homes, with no intention ever to return to counselling.

Colleagues had been raising concerns about her lack of boundaries with clients for about a year, the inquest at Maidstone's County Hall heard.

After the affair she was banned from entering Rochester Young Offenders' Institution.

Meanwhile, public officials have been criticised for taking nine years to hold the inquest.

It is believed the delay was due to the complex nature of the case combined with a severe backlog among Kent's coroners.

In 2011 inspectors said it was “unacceptable” that the inquest into Anthony’s death had still not been held.

Unlike a criminal trial, an inquest is designed not to blame anyone - though it can criticise people’s actions.

The inquest continues.