Last Updated on: 8th July 2023, 10:09 pm
Monique Ooms, A Teacher Who Was Intimate With A Student, Avoids Prison
Although the teacher admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old student in the back seat of her car, the teacher managed to avoid jail.
In Latrobe Valley County Court, Monique Ooms, 31, of Maffra, Victoria, Australia, pleaded guilty to four counts of s*xual penetration of a child in her care.
Although she could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, Judge John Smallwood said he would not put her behind bars.
The fact that the teenager had snuck out in the middle of the night to have sex with the teacher had already been told in court.
The boy was in an “emotionally vulnerable position” after losing a close friend in a car accident the week before.
Judge Smallwood, who admitted he had never heard of a similar case, made a number of odd remarks and said he didn’t know if the boy had been harmed by his predatory behavior.
“In situations like this, the harm often comes from other people after it’s become public,” he said.
The judge argued that although the boy was 16, he was not a child because he consented to be in his care.
“There was clearly an argument between him and her about the wrongfulness. However, he agrees and says it very clearly,” he said.
“He’s very close to 17…does that affect the objective severity of the offense in any way?”
Recalling another case, in which a 17-year-old girl had sex with her 40-year-old teacher, she said the two cases were very different, adding she wanted to make sure her sentencing decision was not appealed afterward.
“I don’t want these issues to be resolved elsewhere,” he said.
“Regarding comparable cases, I can’t find any… I don’t want to make him a guinea pig.”
“I don’t want her to go before an appeals court over issues that I have not adequately addressed.”
He decided not to jail the 31-year-old woman because of the “sheer fragility” of her mental state.
He said the offense was that she was his teacher, not that she slept with the boy.
The teenager had refused to discuss the incident with his advisers, according to prosecutor Andrew Moore.
“There is no definitive proof of the harm, but it is of course a known fact that in such cases, sex offenses against minors, the harm sometimes comes a little later and sometimes decades later,” the judge said.
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