A female teacher who admitted to having sex with her 16-year-old student in the backseat of her car has avoided jail after the judge deemed she was not a predator.
Monique Ooms, 31, of Maffra, was sentenced on Friday by County Court of Victoria Judge John Smallwood to a four year community corrections order, with 300 hours of community work for the crime.
She pleaded guilty this month in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley County Court to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under her supervision and care.
Monique Ooms, 31, of Maffra repeatedly had sex with her young student. She will not spend a minute behind bars for her crime
The 31-year-old appears to have embraced her new tradie life and has posted photos of herself wearing an Akubra in front of a 4WD on her social media pages
Over 30 minutes, Judge Smallwood outlined the contributions to society Ooms had contributed and the hardship she had endured in the community after being outed as a child sex offender.
The court heard Ooms had been abused in the street by strangers and was sacked from her jobs at a pharmacy and the local pub.
Her local Country Fire Association had given her the boot and the footy club no longer wanted a bar of her.
Ooms had faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
The court heard Ooms’ young victim – who was just a few weeks short of turning 17 – had snuck out in the dead of night to have sex with his then school teacher.
The 16-year-old had been grieving the loss of a close friend who died in a fatal car crash the week before and was in a ‘vulnerable situation emotionally’.
But Judge Smallwood made it clear he did not believe Ooms was a sexual predator.
‘I might say from the outset I do not find this offending was in any way, shape or form predatory,’ he said.
‘It was an utterly inappropriate relationship that escalated. You were both aware of the legal wrongness of it all.’
While Judge Smallwood accepted the crime carried a jail sentence, he had difficulties in doing so because of the age of the student, he said.
‘This is a situation where the victim was within a month of his 17th birthday. Questions of the consent, the presumption of harm – all sorts of questions are going to be answered in time,’ he said.
Judge Smallwood said he accepted Ooms had shown remorse for her offending and learnt the error of her ways.
‘I accept that you now have insight into the potential dangers to your victim, if I can put it that way,’ he said.
Monique Ooms, 31, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under her supervision and care in Latrobe Valley County Court
The former teacher (right) had reached out to the student after noticing he was more withdrawn and offered her Instagram handle, and later her phone number
During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Judge Smallwood said he had never dealt with a case involving a teacher where the child wasn’t aged under 16.
The experienced judge said he was concerned whether or not Ooms’ victim had actually been harmed by their illicit liaisons.
‘Often in these situations the harm is what comes from other people after it becomes public,’ he said.
Judge Smallwood said while Ooms’ victim was a school student, he was not a child aged under 16.
‘There has clearly been discussion between he and her about the wrongfulness of it. He nevertheless consents and makes that very clear,’ he said.
The student declined being involved with court proceedings, however his mother read out an emotional witness impact statement in court.
She said she worried for her son’s future and how her family was going to move past the inappropriate student-teacher relationship.
The court heard the student had tried to defend his twisted abuser.
‘She’s a very nice person and I know for a fact that she wasn’t trying to get at me to try and be a predator or anything like that,’ he told police after Ooms was sprung.
‘And I believe that she genuinely had feelings for me and I know I did. As much as it’s wrong, as much as I knew it felt wrong, I know that she’s not like that … I never wanted it to end like this and I never wanted her to feel, to have to cop it.’
Judge Smallwood said he accepted Ooms had shown remorse for her offending and learnt the error of her ways.
Ooms was duped by police into getting into a text exchange with a friend where she made admissions
Ooms lawyer, Katherine Rolfe, said her client had no criminal history, was of previous good character and accepted the offending was serious
Judge Smallwood further accepted Ooms’ treatment by the general public rightfully disgusted in her antics had acted as punishment within itself.
‘You’re subjected to threats in the street, you’ve been yelled at and ridiculed – now that, especially in a country town, is a natural part of what is going to happen when you’re accused as something as serious as this,’ he said.
‘It’s pretty clear that the level of abuse and vilification for somebody as fragile as you is, I have no doubt, in the last few months caused further suicidal ideation.’
Judge Smallwood suggested Ooms was unlikely to survive jail due to her fragile mental state.
‘I have no doubt jail would be catastrophic for you,’ he said.
At the conclusion of his sentence, Judge Smallwood expressed concern about saying anything further about his decision.
‘I’ll say no more in case I get myself into trouble,’ he said.
Judge Smallwood earlier said the offence Ooms committed was not the act of having sex with the boy, but the fact she was his teacher and that her crime was a breach of trust created by statute.
‘You use the word minor. Is he? I mean I don’t know. They are the matters I’m worried about,’ he said during her preliminary hearing.
Monique Ooms leaves court pursued by reporters earlier this month
Ooms formally taught a range of subjects to high school students and had only been at Sale Secondary College for a year before the inappropriate relationship started
The court heard Ooms had preyed upon her student in the weeks after his friend was killed in a car crash.
While the pair initially chatted over social media and phone, before long Ooms was texting her student photos of herself in her underwear.
In July last year the pair shared their first kiss and discussed all the things that were wrong with what had occurred.
The next time they met the pair had sex in the back of Ooms’ car while parked in a forest at night.
The court heard Ooms had sex with her student at least four times over the next few weeks in the backseat of her car before arranging hook-ups at her home.
Ooms’ grubby relationship was discovered when someone wrote two letters to the school principal, who promptly alerted police.
While Ooms initially attempted to deny her antics, she eventually confessed to police after she was duped into making admissions to a friend via text message.
The court heard when asked ‘You did actually do it, didn’t ya?’ she responded ‘Yeah’.
Ooms appears to have now embraced her life as a tradie and has posted photos wearing an Akubra and posing in front of a 4WD to her social media pages.
Ooms formally taught a range of subjects to high school students and had only been at the school for a year before the inappropriate relationship began.
The messages revealed the pair repeatedly said they ‘missed’ and ‘loved’ one another, with Ooms claiming she fell in love with the student.
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Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
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