Toowoomba private school advised parents against going to police over sexual relationship with teacher

The father of a school student who claims a female teacher initiated a sexual relationship with him says he was “strongly advised” against going to police after finding 100 love notes.

The father of a Toowoomba private school student who claims a female teacher initiated a sexual relationship with him has given evidence the school strongly advised his parents against going to police after they discovered up to 100 love notes from the woman in their son’s room.

The boy was just 13 in the 1990s when he alleges the 26-year-old female teacher took an instant liking to him when he started Grade 8 at the boarding school.

He has given evidence during a Brisbane Supreme Court civil trial that their relationship developed from a close friendship to a sexual relationship in which they sent each other love notes and arranged sexual rendezvous in the woman’s classroom, car and home.

The boy’s father today gave evidence he noticed his son and the teacher seemed to be unusually close when he regularly visited the school to watch his son play sport.

“I remember one time I went to the school …(the boy) didn’t know I was coming … anyway I walked in and looked around to find where boys were and I noticed him sitting beside this lady and they were sitting really closely together shoulder to shoulder,” the father told the court.

“During the day I noticed their company seemed pretty close.

“I didn’t take a lot of notice but it did seem a little strange to me.”

A student claims a teacher at a Toowoomba private school initiated a sexual relationship with him.

The man said he became concerned when he later discovered a fax alleged to be from the woman in their home machine which had messages including that he should not show his parents and she missed and loved the boy.

“I seen this fax. It shocked me, I thought there’s something really wrong here,” he said.

The man said he showed the fax to his wife when she got home which prompted her to search her son’s room where she found a stack of postcards, notes and sticky notes alleged to be from the teacher.

“There was a fairly thick bundle; it could have been 50 to 100 maybe,” the man said.

“There was a lot.”

The plaintiff’s barrister Brian Dooley SC queried what was written on the notes.

“Well they all led to the same thing like with I love you, I miss you,” the father said.

“They were like love letters or love notes that you think school kids at that age wouldn’t be writing or receiving.”

The father said he and his wife took the notes to the school.

When asked by Mr Dooley what he thought would happen after the meeting, he said: “Well I think (the headmaster) suggested we could take it to the police go further but they, he, we thought that wasn’t the right decision at the time because it would nearly destroy the young boy.”

“We knew (he) was very, very agitated and we were upset, so we more or less went along with their advice and we did not call the police in at that stage.”

Justice Soraya Ryan later asked further questions of the father about what the school said regarding the police.

“(The headmaster) he advised that was an option we could go to police,” the man said.

“And put all this evidence to the police … and it possibly could have been criminal charges.

“But the school advised well they didn’t tell us not to but they strongly advised it wouldn’t do any good at this stage.”

The father said it wasn’t until a few years ago that his son told him there had been a sexual element to the relationship.

“He hadn’t told us that for years,” he said.

“I suspected but I could not prove it.

“The way (his) attitude changed … I knew something but I could not prove it because no one had told me officially.”

The man said his son went off the rails after the relationship with his teacher ended.

The trial continued.