A teacher who admitted to having sex with her 16-year-old student in the backseat of her car has avoided jail time after a judge ruled he was not a predator.
Monique Ooms, 31, of Maffra, was sentenced on Friday by Victoria County Court Judge John Smallwood to a four-year community correction order, with 300 hours of community service for the offence.
He pleaded guilty this month in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley County Court to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under his supervision and care.
Monique Ooms, 31, from Maffra, repeatedly had sex with her young student. He won’t spend a minute behind bars for her crime.
The 31-year-old appears to have embraced her new traditional life and has posted photos of herself using an Akubra in front of a 4×4 on her social media pages.
For 30 minutes, Judge Smallwood described the contributions to society that Ooms had made and the hardships she had endured in the community after being outed as a child sex offender.
The court heard that Ooms had been abused on the street by strangers and that she had been fired from her job at a pharmacy and at the local pub.
Her local Country Fire Association had kicked her out and the football club no longer wanted a bar from her.
Ooms had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The court heard that the young victim of Ooms, who was just weeks shy of her 17th birthday, had sneaked out in the dead of night to have sex with her then school teacher.
The 16-year-old had been grieving the loss of a close friend who was killed in a fatal car accident the week before and was in an “emotionally vulnerable situation”.
But Judge Smallwood made it clear that he did not believe Ooms was a sexual predator.
“I could say up front that I don’t think this crime has been predatory in any way, shape or form,” he said.
“It was a completely inappropriate relationship that escalated. Both were aware of the legal incorrectness of all this.
Although Judge Smallwood accepted that the offense carried a jail sentence, he had difficulty doing so because of the student’s age, he said.
“This is a situation where the victim was within a month of her 17th birthday. Questions about consent, presumption of harm, all kinds of questions will be answered in time,” he said.
Judge Smallwood said he accepted that Ooms had shown remorse for his offense and learned the error of his ways.
“I accept that you now have an idea of the potential dangers to your victim, if I may 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) approached the student after noticing that he was more withdrawn and offered her Instagram account and then her phone number.
During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Judge Smallwood said he had never tried a case involving a teacher where the child was not under 16.
The seasoned judge said he was concerned about whether or not the Ooms victim had been harmed by his illicit relationships.
“Often in these situations, the harm comes from other people after it becomes public,” he said.
Judge Smallwood said that while Ooms’ victim was a school student, he was not a child under the age of 16.
“Clearly there has been a discussion between him and her about the wrongfulness of this. However, he acquiesces and makes it very clear,” she said.
The student refused to participate in the court proceedings, however his mother read an emotional impact statement in court.
He said he was worried about his son’s future and how his family would overcome the inappropriate student-teacher relationship.
The court heard that 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 to me to try to be a predator or something,” he told police after Ooms was released.
And I think that she really had feelings for me and I know that I did. As much as it’s wrong, as much as I knew she felt bad, I know she’s not like that…I never wanted it to end like this and I never wanted her to feel, to have to face it.’
Judge Smallwood said he accepted that Ooms had shown remorse for his offense and learned the error of his ways.
Police tricked Ooms into participating in a text message exchange with a friend in which he made confessions.
Ooms’ lawyer, Katherine Rolfe, said her client had no criminal record, was of good character and accepted that the offense was serious.
Judge Smallwood further accepted that the treatment of Ooms by the general public, rightfully disgusted by his antics, had acted as punishment in itself.
“You’re subject to threats on the street, you’ve been yelled at and ridiculed, now that, especially in a rural town, is a natural part of what’s going to happen when you’re accused of something as serious as this.” ,’ he said.
“It’s pretty clear that the level of abuse and vilification for someone as fragile as you, I have no doubt, in recent months has led to more suicidal ideation.”
Judge Smallwood suggested that Ooms was unlikely to survive jail due to his fragile mental state.
“I have no doubt that jail would be catastrophic for you,” he said.
At the conclusion of his sentence, Judge Smallwood expressed concern about saying more about his decision.
“I won’t say more in case I get in trouble,” he said.
Judge Smallwood earlier said that the offense Ooms committed was not the act of having sex with the boy, but the fact that she was his teacher and that her offense was a breach of trust created by law.
You use the minor word. Is he? I mean I don’t know. These are the issues that concern me,’ he said during his preliminary hearing.
Monique Ooms leaves court hounded by reporters earlier this month
Ooms formally taught a variety of subjects to high school students and had only been at Sale Secondary College for a year before the inappropriate relationship began.
The court heard that Ooms had taken advantage of his student in the weeks after his friend was killed in a car accident.
While the couple initially chatted on social media and by phone, before long Ooms was texting her students photos of herself in her underwear.
In July of last year, the couple shared their first kiss and discussed all the things that were wrong with what had happened.
The next time they saw each other, the pair had sex in the back of Ooms’ car while it was parked in a forest at night.
The court heard that Ooms had sex with his student at least four times over the next several weeks in the backseat of his car before arranging the connections at his home.
Ooms’ dirty relationship was exposed when someone wrote two letters to the school principal, who immediately alerted the police.
While Ooms initially tried to deny her antics, she eventually confessed to police after she was tricked into confessing to a friend via text.
The court listened when asked: ‘You really did it, didn’t you?’ she replied ‘Yes’.
Ooms now appears to have embraced his life as a tradie and has posted photos wearing an Akubra and posing in front of a 4×4 on his social media pages.
Ooms formally taught a variety of subjects to high school students and had only been at the school for a year before the inappropriate relationship began.
The messages revealed that the couple repeatedly said they ‘missed’ and ‘loved’ each other, with Ooms claiming that she fell in love with the student.
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