Beauty queen busted sexting teen

A teacher and former beauty queen has been jailed for sending lewd pictures to a 15-year-old student.

Ramsey Bearse, who previously taught at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Cross Lanes, West Virginia in the US, was first arrested in December 2018 by the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office.

The educator was charged with "distributing obscene materials to a minor" - to one of her own former students.

The then-28-year old was suspended from her role and was released on a $US10,000 (A$14,300) property bond.

It was alleged Ms Bearse - who was crowned Miss Kentucky in 2014 - sent at least four topless photographs of herself to the boy via Snapchat between August and October of 2018.

At the time of her arrest, the Miss Kentucky Scholarship Organisation released a statement saying it "does not approve of the alleged behaviour which led to the legal allegations and recent arrest of Ramsey Carpenter Bearse".

In December last year she pleaded guilty to a felony count of possession of material depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct.

She told the court at the time that at least one of the snaps had originally been intended for her husband.

"The young man's name was listed next to my husband's on my phone," she said, according to WXIX-TV.

"From there, he asked me for more and I panicked. I was afraid to not appease him.

"When he asked for more, I sent him more photos of me which lead to him sending a photo of his privates."

Mrs Bearse insisted she "didn't keep any of the photos of him or forward them to anyone else".

"But, I did receive them and I did complement him in a way which made it look like I did want them, because again I was afraid to not appease him," she said.

"Since I am the adult and he is just a teenager, it was definitely my fault and I accept the blame for the situation."

Earlier this week, Mrs Bearse was sentenced to two years in jail. After her release she will be supervised for 10 years, and she must also register as a sex offender for life, the Daily Mail reported.

In addition to winning the title of Miss Kentucky, the beauty pageant veteran also competed for the title of Miss America 2015, topping the preliminary talent competition and placing in the top 12 as a semi-finalist.

She raised awareness of multiple sclerosis awareness and impressed the judges with her bluegrass fiddle skills.

Originally published as Ex-beauty queen busted sexting teen