A Gippsland teacher who pleaded guilty this week to having unlawful sex with her 16-year-old student on multiple occasions is unlikely to be given a prison sentence, a court has heard.
The 31-year-old former Central Gippsland teacher was due to be sentenced this morning, but the hearing was adjourned as lawyers and prosecutors tried to find comparable cases.
The woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, had pleaded guilty earlier this week to four counts of sexual penetration of a child aged 16 while under their care or supervision.
The court heard the teacher would meet the student late at night and drive him to a pine plantation where they would have sex.
They also had sex at her home.
Judge John Smallwood said in the County Court sitting in the Latrobe Valley, that in his time as a judge, he had never seen a similar case where a teacher had sex with a student 16 years or older.
He said the teacher's actions would not have been illegal if the child was not under her direct care or supervision.
"The offence is being a teacher ... I've never had the instance where the child is not under 16," Judge Smallwood said.
"Bearing in mind the offence isn't the penetration, it's the doing it when you're a teacher.
"The crime is the breach of trust, not the sexual act.
"I've spoken to a few other judges about this and I can't find anybody who's had anything like this."
At the plea hearing, Judge Smallwood and the defendant's barrister discussed the woman's poor mental health, including hospitalisations for mental illness since her arrest last year.
"The sheer fragility of her mental state, I will determine that I will not be imposing a custodial sentence and I make that clear," Judge Smallwood said.
He referred to a discussion in which the teacher had a conversation with the student about the wrongfulness of her actions, prior to them having sex.
"He nevertheless consents and makes that very clear," Judge Smallwood said.
"Obviously the presumption of harm and all those factors come into play.
"It's often in these situations the harm is what comes from other people after it becomes public."
Impact not immediately clear
However, prosecutor Andrew Moore said harm wasn't always visible or instant.
"It is of course a notorious fact in these sorts of cases, by these cases I mean sex offending against minors, harm doesn't surface sometimes until a little later, a bit later and sometimes decades later," Mr Moore said.
"A rendezvous was arranged very late at night when everyone was in bed under the noses of his parents he was meeting his teacher for sex, that's got to be a serious feature of this offending."
Judge Smallwood said the closest case he could find was where a student was 17 and the accused was a 40 year-old male.
"That's not this situation," Judge Smallwood said.
The judge adjourned the sentencing to later in the month to ensure all bases were covered and to make it less likely for the Office of Public Prosecutions to appeal the non-custodial sentence.
"I don't want to make a guinea pig of her as you can well understand," he told the court.
The woman was again allowed bail and will be sentenced later this the month.
