Youth worker quits over sex with boy

Rosie Oversluizen was supposed to be someone families could trust.
As a youth worker, it was her job to get troubled youth back on the straight and narrow and give them a new chance at life.
A separated Western Bay couple thought the Tauranga woman, who is married with three children, could help their 14-year-old son.
After breaking into a Mount Maunganui home last year, the Youth Court ordered their boy to do a course run by the Tauranga YMCA for the Ministry of Youth Justice called "specialist youth service corp", or Sysco.
Six weeks after Oversluizen was assigned to their teenage son as a case manager, she became sexually intimate with him.
Under a glitch in the law, Oversluizen, then 47, did nothing wrong - women are allowed to have consensual sex with 14-year-old boys.
However, if a man has sex with a girl of the same age, he faces up to seven years' jail.
Oversluizen showered him with presents, taking him on shopping sprees and promising him a $30,000 car for his 15th birthday.
There were weekends away at motels in Rotorua and Palmerston North where the boy was bought alcohol and gifts in return for sex.
Then came the love letters from Oversluizen in which she declared her love for the teenager.
The head of the Tauranga CIB, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner, confirmed there had been an investigation into a sexual relationship between a Tauranga youth worker and a 14-year-old boy.
He said police were satisfied there had been a sexual relationship between the two - but after consultation with the Crown solicitor no criminal charges could be laid.
"We are concerned that a youth worker can have such a relationship with a young vulnerable person," he said. "But the law as it stands doesn't allow us to do anything about it."
Tauranga YMCA executive director Lloyd Davies said an internal investigation was carried out as soon as concerns were raised about Oversluizen's relationship with a student on a course.
"An investigation was completed and she resigned after that," Mr Davies said.
"We acted promptly and did everything we could to protect the young person. Our concern is for the safety of the young person."
The Bay of Plenty Times approached Oversluizen for comment but she refused to talk on the record.
But the teenager's mother said Oversluizen, whom she trusted to help her son with a new future, had stolen his innocence and "forced him to grow up fast".
"I thought she was on the same wavelength and could help him. I thought being a case manager she really wanted to help my son. She was married with kids and was taking him to church. His behaviour was improving so we thought it was going okay."
But away from the protective eyes of his parents and other course tutors, Oversluizen was buying skateboards, cellphones, clothes, posters, CDs, alcohol and cigarettes for the teenager.
And they were having sex.
"I didn't care because I thought `yeah more money, more stuff that I want'," said the teen, now 15.
"If I had sex with her she would always get me something. The next day she would always buy me something I wanted."
But now he is receiving weekly counselling and avoiding places where he may see Oversluizen.
They first met in August, but two weeks after he started the course things changed.
"We were sitting in her car at Pilot Bay having a smoke and she told me she had an ethical dilemma about us," the boy recalled.
"A week later she told me she loves me."
He started staying at her house during the weekends and when his behaviour started to improve his parents did not question the stays.
In November, Oversluizen resigned from her role at the course but she continued to contact the teenager via love letters.
His parents had banned the boy from contacting Oversluizen.
In a letter dated November 20, 2004 Oversluizen wrote: "I'm sorry you weren't able to stay as planned. Rather than videos, strawberries and ... chocolate sauce I'm sitting here missing you and wondering what you are doing and how you are feeling.
"You are so sweet - one minute you are a little boy playing with plastic guns and tea towels and the next minute you are very mature - caring and sensitive."
Oversluizen wrote about taking a t-shirt from the boy which she described as a "security blanket".
"I wanted to have something with your smell on it so I could feel close to you. I want to be with you so badly. If I can't be with you, I don't want to be with anyone else."
The boy's mother wants a change in the law so "other young boys are not bought by this woman".
She said that while the sex was consensual, it was only because her son was being showered with gifts.
Sex between women and boys under 16 could be outlawed with the Crimes (sex offences) amendment bill before parliament.
The Government sex laws overhaul will introduce the offence of "familial sexual abuse", covering any form of sexual connection between people under 20 and others in "power relationships", including foster parents, adoptive parents, guardians and those related by marriage.