Woman avoids prison after having sex with son’s underage friend

A woman who had sex with her son’s underage friend on several occasions has avoided prison and being registered as a sex offender.

The woman, in her 30s, appeared in court yesterday charged with doing an indecent act and five counts of sexual connection with a young person.

She was granted permanent name suppression, despite opposition from the victim, because her son had struggled with a range of mental health problems after learning about the relationship between his mother and his friend.

“Schooling has been very difficult for him, with the stigma and rumour of what’s been going on,” the woman’s lawyer, Lucie Scott, told the court.

The court heard how the woman’s son was no longer in his mother’s care but was slowly rebuilding a positive relationship with her.

According to the summary of facts, the offending took place over several months.

The Crown says on one occasion the woman approached the boy, who was under 16, and after touching him, performed oral sex. She then told him to get in her car, which was parked nearby, and had sex with him.

She performed oral sex on him at her home on several other occasions.

On one occasion at a party she gave him a drink of juice after. The boy says he doesn’t remember anything after that and awoke on her bedroom floor the next morning.

The woman had pleaded not guilty and was to appear before a jury last year, but changed her plea after being given a sentence indication.

Yesterday, she was sentenced to three months’ community detention and a year of intensive supervision.

Judge Bruce Northwood also declined to add her name to the sex offender’s register. If a person is sentenced to a form of community detention - rather than prison - for sexual offending, it is up to the judge to decide whether they’re added to the register.

“It seems you have some insight as to what’s gone wrong here,” Judge Northwood said.

“It seems to me that when I assess the risk of reoffending it is low, intensive supervision will be fine.”

Judge Northwood said he granted the woman permanent name suppression in order to protect her son.