Appeal judge jails woman for sex with 15-year-old student

CANBERRA - Last November, after former Melbourne PE teacher Karen Ellis left court as a convicted child molester, she told reporters: "I got exactly what I deserved."

But yesterday the Victorian Court of Appeal disagreed. It overturned the 37-year-old's original three-year suspended prison sentence for having sex with a 15-year-old student, and jailed her for six months instead.

The court found that the extended liaison between Ellis and the boy was repeated offending rather than a "foolish lapse".

A further two years and two months' jail was suspended by the appeal court.

The affair between Ellis and the boy sparked nationwide controversy after the initial sentencing, with child protection groups lashing the inadequacy of the punishment.

Ellis admitted six counts of sexual penetration with a boy under 16 during an affair that began with flirting on a suburban Melbourne school basketball court and progressed to sex at her home while her husband was out of town.

The relationship was uncovered when the boy's mother saw the couple together and found messages from Ellis on her son's cellphone.

County Court Judge John Smallwood found that the affair had not been a case in which Ellis had acted as a sexual predator for her own sexual gratification, and said a degree of mercy was appropriate because of the enormous damage Ellis has wrought upon herself.

Ellis can never teach again and her name has been entered on the national register of sexual offenders.

But the sentence outraged child protection agencies such as Bravehearts, which said it sent the wrong message to everyone.

The Crime Victims' Association, referring to another case in which tennis coach Gavin Hopper was jailed for a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, said the sentence suggested there was one law for one gender and another for the other.

Sentencing Ellis to jail yesterday, the Court of Appeal said that the law must protect all children from abuse, especially from those in positions of trust and authority.

Ellis sobbed as she was led from the court and her lawyer, Chester Metcalf, told reporters outside that she was devastated.

"She's taking it pretty hard at the moment, as you can expect. It's been a pretty hard road." Metcalf said an appeal might be considered.

But the boy's mother said the court had made the right decision.

"Justice has been done. Hopefully she'll sit in there for a while and think about how she's affected so many people."