A trainee teacher said she was "ecstatic" yesterday after being cleared of having sex with one of her pupils.

Hannah McIntyre, 25, was accused of seducing the 16-year-old boy after plying him with cider. But a jury took just 75 minutes to dismiss the youth's claims and find her not guilty.

Judge Robert Warnock immediately told her she was free to leave the dock and she ran into the arms of her boyfriend and parents Irene and Harry, who had all supported her throughout the trial.

Miss McIntyre, described in court as a "shy" student teacher and an "easy target" for disruptive children, had worked at the £8,000-a-year Merchant Taylors' Boys' School in Merseyside, one of the best performing independent schools in the country. She said her teaching career, a path inspired by her English teacher mother, was now in tatters.

Within weeks of starting at the school, where Miss McIntyre taught A-level Latin and Ancient Greek, she found herself unable to control some of the students in her classes. The court was told a number of the 16 and 17-year-old boys would mock her five-foot height and Scottish accent. By that stage they had a history of taunting the teacher.

Four months after she started working there, the boy and two school friends called round to her home. That night, in January 2008, the boys thought it would be "a laugh" to visit her because they were bored and had nothing else to do. After knocking at Miss McIntyre's door, they "barged" past the teacher, who was dressed in her pyjamas, and riffled through her flat poking fun at her possessions and mishandling a pet lizard after removing it from its cage. Miss McIntyre said she immediately felt "overwhelmed" and "intimidated". But she felt she could manage the situation and felt that if she called for the police the boys would get in trouble with the school and make life in her classroom even more difficult than it already was.

When she asked the boys, who at six feet towered over her, to leave her flat they ignored her. Miss McIntyre told the jury she even agreed to buy them bottles of cider in the hope that they would then leave her alone. In the end, she told the court, she went to bed leaving the boys downstairs in her living room.

"I was very anxious and bed seemed to be the best hiding place," she told the court.

One boy followed her to the bedroom, and she said he poked her with his finger and made "sex noises" before he collapsed, drunk, on the floor. It was almost a year later, in December 2008, that he claimed that they had sex.

The boy claimed to his mother he had sex with his teacher shortly after he was suspended for a third time in six months for being disrespectful to female teachers and using violence against other pupils.

Miss McIntyre's defence argued the allegations were invented by the youth, now an 18-year-old undergraduate, to gain sympathy from teaching staff and ensure he was able to continue with his A-levels and go to university.

Telling the jury her feelings about the claims, she said she was angry because she had lost a job she loved and her good reputation. She told them she wanted to see the boy prosecuted.

Merchant Taylors' is one of the country's best performing independent schools.

In a statement, the school said: "Merchant Taylors' Schools note the verdict of the court in finding Miss Hannah McIntyre not guilty, and are pleased that this long process has finally been brought to a conclusion.

"Miss McIntyre was dismissed from Merchant Taylors' Boys' School in the autumn of 2009, although there is an appeal pending against this decision. The school cannot comment further in order to avoid prejudicing the outcome."

Her mother said it had been an "unbelievably" difficult time for the whole family.

She said such allegations had always presented a hazard for those in the teaching profession.