Teacher Amy Hood found guilty of luring and assaulting 2 students

Former Nova Scotia teacher Amy Hood has been found guilty of sexual assault, sexual interference and two counts of luring minors.

Hood was a teacher at ThornburnConsolidated School in Pictou County when, during the summer of 2013, she lured two former male students who were 15 at the time.

Provincial court Judge Del Atwood delivered his verdict on Wednesdayafternoon in Pictou.Hood will return to court to learn her sentence on July 26.

Hood's lawyer had argued at trial last year that she should be found not criminally responsible because she suffers from bipolar disorder and was in a manic state. The judge rejected that argument.

Crown prosecutor Bill Gorman said outside the courtroom that he believes the judge "wasn't satisfied that defence had met the burden, which they must ... in terms of whether or not you appreciate the nature and quality of your actions, or you know that it's illegally or morally wrong."

The Crown argued during the trial that Hood knew what she was doing and called her interactions with the boys an escape from an "unpleasant" domestic situation.

Text messages of a sexual nature

Hood exchanged text messages of a sexual nature with the students and some of those texts included pictures. Hood was also accused of performing oral sex on one of the students in her vehicle.

Hood's lawyer, Joel Pink, said the defence admitted to evidence in four of the counts: two of luring, one of sexual interference and one of sexual exploitation.

Pink said he plans to argue for a lessersentence, adding his client has surrendered her teacher's licence.

"She's lost her profession," he said. "And, further, she's had a tremendous amount of publicity negative publicity a lot of it was unfair."

Four psychiatrists testified during the trial: three for the defence and one for the Crown.

The CBC's Blair Rhodes live blogged the court proceedings.