Ex-Sale Secondary College teacher Monique Ooms dodges jail after sex with student

A Victorian school teacher who denied having sex with her student eventually confessed after police uncovered damning texts.

Former Sale Secondary College teacher Monique Ooms has dodged jail after having a sexual relationship with her student.

A Victorian school teacher who admitted having sex with her teenage student will avoid jail as text messages emerge of the police sting that solicited her confession.

Monique Ooms, 31, fronted the Latrobe Valley County Court in Morwell on Friday expecting it could be her last day of freedom for some time after she pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration with a teenage boy under her care and supervision.

Her crimes carry a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.

But Judge John Smallwood quickly eased Ooms’ mind in telling her he did not intend to send her to jail.

“I’ve determined that I will not be imposing a custodial sentence,” Judge Smallwood said.

He cited the “sheer fragility of her mental state” for his decision, adding that medical material provided to him was “compelling”.

The Herald Sun earlier revealed how Ooms was teaching at Sale Secondary College when she began the inappropriate relationship with the student after exchanging Instagram details with him.

He would sneak out of his home in the middle of the night, without his parents knowing, and she would pick him up in her car.

Sale Secondary College teacher Monique Ooms will never be able to teach again.

They would drive to remote locations where they would kiss, touch and have sex in the backseat of her car.

She also had him over at her house in Maffra.

The sexual offending occurred between July 1 and August 8 last year.

Court documents reveal she gave a mostly no comment interview to police when arrested and questioned over the relationship on August 12.

But unbeknown to her, a day earlier, investigators were with a witness, who was known to Ooms and was being prompted to write messages in a text exchange with her.

The messages would prove vital in assisting police to charge her.

The witness asked Ooms: “You did actually do it, didn’t ya?”

Ooms replied: “Yeah”.

“During the conversation she (also) admitted deleting the text messages between her and (the victim),” a police summary released by the court said.

Police had initially spoken to the victim on August 8 after the allegations were reported to them by the school principal who had received two letters outlining the student-teacher relationship.

But the teen claimed they were “just friends”, before leaving the station and quickly warning Ooms to delete all evidence of their affair from her phone.

She had sent him photos in her underwear, and they had both expressed their love for each other in texts.

Judge Smallwood adjourned passing his sentence to later this month, expressing concerns it was a “novelty” case that he did not want to see end up in the Court of Appeal “over matters that haven’t been properly addressed by me”.

But he made it clear his non-custody disposition would not change.

He said he had not been able to find any comparable cases to Ooms where the victim is not under the age of 16.

He said it was a “unique situation” where he had to look at the objective seriousness of the offending, with no evidence of harm to the victim.

The teen did not want to be part of the court proceedings, with the prosecution saying he had “moved on” and was “worried” what may happen to Ooms.

“The offence isn’t the penetration, it’s doing it while a teacher,” Judge Smallwood said.

Ooms now works as a bricklayer after having her teaching registration cancelled.