Trainee teacher allegedly 'injected herself' into schoolboy's life, trial told

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged child abuse.

A teacher accused of grooming a former student created a relationship with “a distortion and an imbalance”, a jury has been told.

The trainee teacher is in an ACT Supreme Court trial that started last week, in which she is accused of having a sexual and romantic relationship with the boy that began after the then-24-year-old met him at his school in late 2020 during a university placement.

In closing submissions on Wednesday (25 September), prosecutor Emilija Beljic said the Crown’s case was, in part, that the relationship between the two went beyond friendship.

“There’s no doubt there that he [the boy] was interested in his teacher and he was quite flirty. But he said it was reciprocated,” she said.

She alleged the teacher deliberately sought a relationship with the boy.

“She had injected herself in such a way that he simply needed her and couldn’t live without her,” Ms Beljic alleged.

This was done by buying him things and driving him around, Ms Beljic put to the jury, which would “foster his interest, his admiration and his attention” on her.

“These were very adult things that he couldn’t access on his own,” Ms Beljic said.

“Inevitably, that creates a distortion and an imbalance, that at the end of the relationship, he was so tied to her.”

Jurors previously heard that when the teacher was arrested in 2022, the boy told his mother, “I can’t live without her”.

Ms Beljic claimed the teacher “fully appreciated the degree of his dependence on her”.

“He had no intention of complaining. He sought to deter the investigation because he was in love with the accused,” she alleged.

The alleged abuser gave evidence on Tuesday (24 September), where she claimed that she was just friends with the boy.

Ms Beljic alleged steps the two took to hide their relationship, such as parking away from the boy’s family home, showed there was more than friendship between them.

“If she says this was just a friendship, just hanging out with a 15-year-old, what does she stand to gain from it?” she asked.

In her evidence, the woman said she believed the boy was 16 when she sent him a photo of her cleavage and said she sent him “nudes” after his 16th birthday.

She described him as being “very pushy and forceful” in his requests for the material.

In her closing submission, Ms Beljic argued the teacher was “very freely and happy [to be] participating in the sending” of explicit material to the boy.

“This is an adult. How is an adult feeling pressured by a kid to send videos?”.

“She could have just said, ‘No mate, that‘s enough. I’m cutting you off’.”

In his closing submissions on Wednesday, the woman’s barrister, Sam Pararajasingham, alleged the boy had “exhibited a calculation well beyond his years”.

The boy was “assertive, headstrong” and had a “sense of entitlement” when he allegedly asked the woman for things, such as lifts to and from parties. In return, he said his client was willing to rearrange her schedule for his and answer the boy’s calls in the early hours of the morning.

“There’s something mildly sad about it, but it reflects an earnestness on her behalf at this point in time,” he said.

Mr Pararajasingham alleged the boy sought “highly comprising photos and videos of the accused” from the woman before reportedly showing them to his then-girlfriend, friend and brother.

“[The boy] used [the teacher] for a particular purpose – to impress his friends and make [his then-girlfriend] jealous,” alleged Mr Pararajasingham.

He also alleged that the teacher relied on things that the boy told her and “a confidence, a forthrightness that [she] was entitled to draw inferences about” in believing the boy was 16 at a time in reality when he was 15.

Mr Pararajasingham said that, during his cross-examination earlier in the trial, the boy agreed he could be mistaken in his timeline of events.

“The fact that their central witness [the boy] accepted the possibility of alternate facts is a significant hurdle for the Crown,” he alleged.

He alleged some elements of the boy’s account, such as when he lied about being intimate with the woman, were directly relevant to his account of events.

“This case is about you accepting his account, on the very topic of which he’s conceded he lied about,” he said.

Mr Pararajasingham also alleged the prosecution’s case had a “considerable reliance” on the memories of the boy’s ex-girlfriend, who he suggested may be “relying on a sort of melded account” that drew from other people’s comments on events several years ago.

The teacher, who legally can’t be named, has pleaded not guilty to single counts of the persistent sexual abuse of a child and making pornographic material available to a young person, as well as two counts each of grooming and committing an act of indecency.

The trial continues before Acting Justice John Burns.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT on 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.