School teacher, 25 jailed for sleeping with student

A Melbourne teacher jailed for sleeping with a student multiple times once told the boy she’d “caught feelings” for him, before later filming one of their sexual encounters.

A Melbourne school teacher has been jailed for sleeping with a student. Picture: file photo

A Melbourne school teacher who told her teenage student she was “willing to risk” her job to have sex with him has been jailed.

The teacher, 25, at the County Court on Tuesday was sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to sexual penetration, grooming and possessing child abuse material of a person under 16.

In handing down his sentence, Judge Trevor Wraight said the former teacher groomed the student to satisfy her own desires.

“By the very nature of your relationship, a power imbalance existed,” he said.

“You were in a position of trust and you groomed the victim in order to engage in sexual conduct.”

The teacher was in her second year of teaching in Melbourne’s southeast when she began grooming the boy, telling him she wanted to be friends outside of school and wished he was older.

She later said she couldn’t believe she was “catching feelings” for him before the pair began exchanging messages via text and on social media.

After picking the boy up from his parents’ home and driving to a nearby football oval, the teacher told the boy she loved him and wanted to begin a relationship before they kissed.

The teacher later asked if he wanted to have sex.

“If we get caught I’m gonna go to jail, I’m gonna lose my job,” she told him.

But she said she was “willing to risk it” if he was.

Over a five-month period in 2021, the pair had sex on approximately 15 occasions, either in her car or at her home.

The teacher also sent the boys thousands of messages, most of which were sexual in nature, and filmed them having sex.

After the boy’s parents discovered the messages on his phone, the teacher was reported to police and arrested.

She gave a no comment interview but later pleaded guilty to the charges.

In a victim impact statement, the victim’s parents said their relationship with their son had been “tarnished” by the teacher’s offending.

“They were devastated you took advantage of his young age,” Judge Wraight said.

“You deprived him of his normal teenage years.”

A forensic psychiatrist assessed the teacher to have major depressive disorder which impacted her decision-making.

“He is of the view that your immaturity and lack of personal boundaries led to you to consider him an equal,” Judge Wraight said.

But he found the woman had shown “genuine remorse” and was unlikely to reoffend upon her release.

Wearing blue prison clothing and appearing via video link from custody, the woman at times looked down as Judge Wraight passed his sentence.

She has already spent more than a year in jail and must serve at least two years of her sentence before she is eligible for parole.

The teacher will also be a registered sex offender for life.