Teacher Shane Osmond developed ‘romantic feelings’ for student
A TEACHER who bombarded his student with 1650 Facebook messages — many sexually explicit in nature — and gifted him a “soulmate necklace” will not face any criminal charges.
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A TEACHER who bombarded his student with 1650 Facebook messages — many sexually explicit in nature — and gifted him a “soulmate necklace” will not face any criminal charges.
Shane Osmond, 55, developed “romantic feelings” for his 16-year-old student, a hearing has been told.
The man, who taught at a public high school in Melbourne’s northeast, has been suspended by the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), where a hearing was told he sent his student up to 20 Facebook messages a day over 17 months.
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They included links to chronic masturbation posts where Mr Osmond told his student, “read this and thought of you, LOL” and a Christmas image of elves making phallic shaped sex toys.
The hearing was also told Mr Osmond referred to his penis as “champ” and named his student’s penis “Theo”.
Despite the allegations, Mr Osmond will not face a criminal investigation.
Under Victorian law, there is no offence of grooming a child over the age of 16, even if it’s by a teacher considered in a position of power.
Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said the oversight in the law was “more than a loophole”.
“It’s a clear gap in the legislation that leaves children vulnerable,” he said.
On the boy’s 17th birthday, evidence was submitted that Mr Osmond took his student to Crown Casino, where he was denied entry, then to a restaurant and bar where he gifted him a drone, socks, green tea and a Captain America USB.
And when the boy was sick from school, Mr Osmond appeared at his house uninvited, “rushed past his mother when she opened the door and … appeared to tend to the student as if he was his partner”, lawyer representing the VIT Jeeviya Mather told the hearing.
Mr Osmond did not attend the hearing on Thursday, where Ms Mather submitted that he had a “soulmate necklace” made for the boy in New York, and told him he “trusted him more than anyone else”.
One week after giving him the necklace, while in a car, the teacher said: “I would never make a move on you, unless you wanted me to.”
Ms Mather said this was when the student “started to feel unsafe”.
When the boy finished school, the hearing was told Mr Osmond gifted him a photo album of pictures of them together.
Ms Mather said Mr Osmond’s communication with the student was “at times indicative of a lover scorned”.
When the student told his teacher he didn’t trust him or feel comfortable, he replied, “You can’t trust me? Are you serious? … It just cuts me to the bone to hear that.”
And later, “You need to give me your word what is said between us stays between us, whether you are OK with it or not.”
If found guilty, Mr Osmond would have his teacher registration cancelled and be disqualified from further application for five years.
The hearing panel adjourned the matter to allow Mr Osmond an opportunity to respond to the opening submissions.
An order prevents the Herald Sun from naming the school.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Martin Pakula said: “As this matter is currently before a hearing panel it would be inappropriate to comment.”