Wantirna College teacher blames loneliness for sex with student

A Wantirna College teacher says she plied her young student with booze and had sex with him because she was lonely during Covid lockdowns.

Azar Rahmatzadeh. Picture: Supplied

A Wantirna College teacher blames loneliness suffered during Covid lockdowns for plying a student with booze and having doggy-style sex with him after he called her a “MILF”.

Azar Rahmatzadeh, 45, told detectives she was “happy that someone was paying attention to me” when the boy began messaging her on social media.

So much so when he suggested they go for a drink during the school holidays in January last year, she accepted the invite.

The Spanish teacher later admitted she knew it was wrong and that she was “old enough to be his mother”.

But she arranged to pick up the teenager from her local train station, asking him to duck his head and “keep a low profile” as they travelled in the car past a police station back to her Croydon home.

Inside the privacy of her house, the boy said he had “three to four” Jack Daniels and cokes, and two shots of vodka.

It was when they moved to an outside table for Rahmatzadeh to have a cigarette, that she made her move and sat on his lap.

She admitted it was “nice to hear” when he then described her as “pretty” and a “MILF”, which stands for “Mother I’d Like to F---”.

Her response was to kiss him.

“I thought he would be satisfied with that for a young boy,” she would later tell police.

The Wantirna College teacher blamed loneliness suffered during Covid lockdowns.

But the pair soon after ended up in her bedroom having sexual intercourse.

When the boy left, he remarked that if he told fellow students of their encounter, “I’m going to be the coolest kid in school”.

She begged him not to tell anyone, acknowledging she could lose her job.

The shocking details of the inappropriate rendezvous were aired in the County Court on Friday where Rahmatzadeh pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual penetration with a child under 16.

The charge related to four sexual acts with the boy at her Croydon home.

Defence lawyer Ruth Shann said it was a “complex” and “confronting” situation in which her client found the contact with the student “somewhat fulfilling” in an emotional way.

She said Rahmatzadeh had found isolation during the pandemic difficult.

“She lived alone — she struggled with remote learning,” Ms Shann said.

Judge Anne Hassan said loneliness is often underrated.

“She was a deeply lonely woman,” Judge Hassan said.

But she said that could not excuse her conduct.

“She abused her position — the responsibility falls on the adult at all times,” Judge Hassan said.

Ms Shann said her client’s conduct was “abhorrent” and conceded the only appropriate punishment was jail.

“She is ready to go to prison — her bag is packed,” Ms Shann said.

She said Rahmatzadeh had lost her career and financial security, and experienced shame and abuse, over “acts that occurred over the course of a few minutes”.

The court heard a three-second video the boy took of his teacher sitting on his lap in the stairwell of her home before he left that day would be her ultimate undoing.

After he shared the video with two mates, this eventually led to Rahmatzadeh’s arrest three months later in April.

Rahmatzadeh will be sentenced on May 12.