Carer had sex with boy, 15 | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

A WOMAN given the responsibility of caring for troubled young people has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence after having an affair with one of her teenage charges.

The 49-year-old woman, who was stood down when the charges were raised and whose identity has been suppressed by the court, pleaded guilty in the Lismore Local Court to two counts of having sex with a 15-year-old boy who was under her care on January 26 and February 15 this year.

Several other counts of the same charge, alleged to have happened at different times, were withdrawn.

Police facts presented to the court said the woman had sex with the boy, who also cannot be identified, on Monday, January 26, at the place she was caring for him and then, soon after, performed oral sex on him.

The other incident happened nearly three weeks later, on Sunday, February 15, when the woman, who is married and has children of her own, was taking the boy on a ‘road trip’ to a swimming pool.

The woman stopped on the way to the pool and had sex with the boy in the car.

Despite the severity of the charges, police said the teenager was ‘very protective’ of the woman and that he refused to be interviewed by officers investigating the case.

The teenager also had an ‘extreme dislike’ of people in authority, police said.

Officers were alerted to the case when a ‘risk of harm’ note was faxed to them, outlining concerns that a teenage boy might be having sex with a woman responsible for caring for him.

Police said the only way they were able to bring charges against the woman was because of an extraordinary level of co-operation she had given them.

The woman made ‘full and frank’ admissions to police officers investigating the case in interviews at her home and at a police station.

Police, in the statement of facts provided to the court, said the woman had provided officers investigating the case with the only information they had on the times and places she and the boy had sex and the types of sexual acts they had engaged in.

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