Former Bendigo Senior Secondary School teacher jailed for raping student after graduation party
A former Bendigo teacher who raped a female student who fell asleep after attending their high school graduation party has been jailed.
Kristen Louise Thomas was sentenced to three years in the County Court of Victoria at Bendigo on Monday after a jury found her guilty of indecent assault and rape of the girl, then aged 17, in December 2006.
Kristen Louise Thomas was jailed after a trial at the County Court of Victoria, held at Bendigo.Credit: Darrian Traynor
Thomas, 47, will serve 18 months in prison, with the remainder of the sentence suspended.
Thomas was 28 and a teacher at the time of offending, which occurred when she attended the Bendigo Senior Secondary School graduating party and went to a local hotel with students. She returned home with two of the students, including the intoxicated victim, to “play tapes” after drinking at the hotel, the court heard.
“It was a very dangerous practice at the time for a recent class teacher of two ex-pupils to have them at her home when they’d been drinking,” Judge Michael McInerney said on Monday.
The victim said she needed to go to bed because of how much she had to drink, and was vulnerable, the court heard, and fell asleep in the teacher’s bed.
“The victim believed at all times that their relationship was platonic, and indeed saw Thomas as an adult friend,” McInerney said in his sentencing remarks.
It was not a “deliberate plan or manoeuvre” for the girl to fall asleep in that bed, but Thomas later went to bed and kissed the student before digitally raping her.
“[Thomas] took the opportunity and gave into either to sexual temptation or excitement,” McInerney said.
