I loved him, woman says of 13-year-old boy

A 21-year-old swimming coach who had a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old swim champion says she once loved the boy and believes she has done nothing wrong.

The woman has spoken out about her relationship with the boy, believing she has been unfairly vilified.

"I fell in love with that person and he loved me back and he told me almost every day, for six months, how much he loved me," she said.

The boy's mother is furious that sex crime laws dating back 42 years mean the woman cannot be prosecuted as a man would be if he slept with a child.

Wellington City Council, the coach's employer, moved her from the suburban pool where she worked to another where she is "managed", said spokesman Richard McLean.

"We have found her behaviour to be highly inappropriate but at this point in time we can't take disciplinary or any other kind of action [because of the law]," he said.

The woman said she had coached a swim team but claimed she did not coach the boy.

She said the relationship would never have become sexual if the Crimes Act had been changed before they met.

"After we first kissed, when I first realised that it may turn into a sexual relationship, I did go and check the law. I checked very well," she said.

"If the law had said it was illegal I would have removed myself from him. I support a law change."

The boy was a talented athlete whom she still cared for, but no longer wanted to have sex with.

It was the first time she had been attracted to such a young boy.

The two got together when she was 20 and he was 13 and kept their relationship "very, very secret" until January, when he decided to break it off. She had agreed it was for the best.

News broke of the affair in the swimming community in February.

Friends were hurt and appalled by their secrecy and the swimming coach said she regretted that.

But she had made a counter-claim with the police and said the boy - about 1.83m tall and weighing 80kg - needed to take some responsibility.

"He is not a little kid. If he made the decision to deal with grown-up things he needs to own up to what he is doing in a grown-up way."



She hoped that others involved, including the boy's mother, would agree to meet and sort it out.

"This is why this has turned into the big ugly mess that it has. We never got to sit down and talk about it ...

"[He] and I have things we need to say to each other. But at the moment I'm not even allowed contact with ... [him] or to send him a letter."

- NZPA