Former teacher, 31, pleads guilty to sexually assaulting student
Monique Ooms, 31, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under her supervision and care in Latrobe Valley County Court on Wednesday.
A teacher who admitted to having sex with her 16-year-old student in the backseat of her car as he grieved the loss of a friend should be spared jail because she's suffered 'public shame' and lost her job, her lawyer has argued.
Monique Ooms, 31, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual penetration of a child under her supervision and care in Victoria's Latrobe Valley County Court on Wednesday.
The former teacher had made contact with the student after noticing he was more withdrawn, offering him her Instagram handle and later her phone number.
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'.
The pair began to exchange increasingly explicit messages online with the court hearing Ooms sent the teenager photos of herself in her underwear.
The 16-year-old began sneaking out to have sex with the former teacher in the backseat of her car and later in her home, the Herald Sun reported.
The court heard the abuse occurred between July 1 and August 8 of last year and only stopped after Sale Secondary College received two anonymous letters.
The letters said the teacher-turned-bricklayer was having a sexual relationship with a student, with Ooms to be later stripped of her teaching registration.
The 31-year-old appears to have 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 college 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.
When the 16-year-old was questioned he told police they were 'just friends' and called Ooms to give her a heads up to delete their correspondence.
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.
Ooms lawyer, Katherine Rolfe, said her client had no criminal history, was of previous good character and accepted the offending was serious.
She also had a complex diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder which impaired her judgment, Ms Rolfe said.
She said the former teacher had been involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward in recent months because of suicide attempts and ideation.
Ms Rolfe has advocated for a community-based order for Ooms, arguing the media attention and losing her teaching registration was punishment enough.
Prosecutor Andrew Moore said the crimes were serious as they involved a 'significant breach of trust' on a vulnerable child who had been in her care.
Judge John Smallwood ordered Ooms to undergo a community corrections order assessment ahead of her sentencing hearing on Friday.
The former teacher faces a maximum penalty of 10 years behind bars.
