Australian teacher freed after having sex with student
An Australian high school teacher who admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old student escaped jail and was walking free on Tuesday.
Monique Ooms, 31, was seen crying at Melbourne Court of Appeal after a panel upheld a decision to give her just 300 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration of a minor in her care or custody . 9 news reports.
Victorian prosecutors appealed the original verdict in March, claiming Ooms deserved a hefty prison sentence for abusing her position as a teacher at Sale Secondary College.
However, Justices Richard Niall, Maree Kennedy and Cameron Macaulay denied the appeal, saying that Oom’s mental illness “would make a prison sentence potentially ‘disastrous’.”
The defense had testified in court that Ooms was depressed about her alleged infertility when she had sex with the boy, although she appeared pregnant at her sentencing in July.
She is also said to have suffered from mental health issues after her relationship with the student became known and was allegedly bullied.
Ooms, who attended high school last year, began texting the 16-year-old after seeing he was having personal troubles, prosecutors said.
The teacher then began sending the worried boy pictures of herself in her underwear before the two finally had sex in July 2022.
The couple had sex several more times at her home and in her car before an anonymous letter was brought to the attention of the school’s administration.
Judge John Smallwood, who made the original decision, said he found the teacher-student relationship “totally inappropriate” but did not see Ooms’ behavior as predatory.
The Appellate Body ultimately agreed with Smallwood’s decision, calling the verdict a “difficult sentencing exercise.”
“The offense was serious and, as the judge correctly determined, a period of imprisonment to fulfill the purpose of the punishment would normally be expected,” the judges wrote in their ruling.
“But the judge thought this was a very unusual situation … It is a striking example of a judge’s concern to exercise ‘individualized justice’ and to exercise judicial discretion to ‘exercise justice’ in the particular case.”
Ooms did not comment on the verdict as she left the courthouse. Her representative could not be immediately reached for comment.
