A former trainee teacher accused of sexually abusing and grooming a student knowingly entangled herself in the boy's life and knew he depended on her as a result, a court has heard.
"She had injected herself into his life in such a way that he simply needed her and couldn't live without her," prosecutor Emilija Beljic said on Wednesday during her closing address.
The woman is facing an ACT Supreme Court trial after denying numerous charges, including persistent sexual abuse of a child, grooming, and making pornographic material available to a young person.
While the prosecution case is she cultivated a romantic and sexual "relationship" beginning when she was 24 and the teenager was 15, the woman claims the pair were only ever just friends.
That is, despite admitting she sent him graphic sexual videos of herself when he was 16, being the age of consent, and "revealing" images when he was a year younger, but she claims thinking he was 16.
The schoolboy's evidence is the pair eventually became a couple.
"This is a person who had no intention of complaining. He effectively sought to deter police from the investigation because he was so in love with the accused," the prosecutor said.
'She knew he needed her'
The pair's "relationship" is said to have started in late 2020 after the woman worked as a pre-service teacher at the alleged victim's ACT school.
The now-28-year-old woman cannot be named due to suppression orders.
"It may not be a romantic relationship in the way an adult understands it," the prosecutor said.
But Ms Beljic said the woman "lavishing a child" with gifts, money, time and attention without his parents knowing helped create an obvious closeness towards her and fostered a relationship which turned sexual.
The court has heard those gifts included vapes, alcohol, cologne and designer clothes.
"She was providing things to him only an adult could provide to a child," the prosecutor said.
"That creates a distortion and an imbalance.
"She knew he needed her."
Student admitted lies
The multi-day trial has heard evidence about the alleged victim, including that he was "very pushy and forceful" in his repeated requests for explicit material and the woman felt pressured into sending files.
But the prosecutor told jurors: "All of this is fostered by an adult that [the schoolboy] said entertained it."
"How is an adult feeling pressured by a kid to send videos?"
In his evidence, the student said: "She wasn't shying away from it ... she wasn't shying away from anything."
The trial also previously heard evidence about the teenager sharing those files against the woman's wishes and lying to friends about having had sex with her.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor said it was clear the schoolboy "big noted himself" and lied, but that he was "supremely candid" about any mistruths.
"There's no doubt that he lied, but he told you he lied," Ms Beljic said.
And despite making those clear concessions, jurors were told, the alleged victim was steadfast in his evidence the former trainee teacher had indecently assaulted him in a car after a party.
'Assertive' boy got 'whatever he pleased'
In his closing address, defence barrister Sam Pararajasingham described the case as highly unusual and said the alleged victim was someone "who carried himself in a manner beyond his years".
He described the boy as "an assertive, headstrong young man who tended to get whatever he pleased" and who circulated "highly compromising photos and videos of the accused".
"It's hard to conclude anything other than this young man had very little regard for [the woman]," the barrister said on Wednesday.
As his client had done, Mr Pararajasingham told the court the woman had a reasonable belief the teenager was 16 years old when she initially sent him "cleavage" photos.
During his evidence, the alleged victim said: "I always said I was a year older."
But regarding an adult sending a 16-year-old revealing and eventually nude content, Mr Pararajasingham said: "You might think, rightly, frankly, that is a highly inappropriate thing to do."
"The whole thing might raise questions of morality and appropriateness, but that's not why you're here."
Mr Pararajasingham argued the schoolboy had used the woman to impress his friends and make an on-again-off-again girlfriend jealous.
On one occasion, jurors heard he demanded and received a nude image of the former trainee teacher while him and his partner were fighting.
"He was able to obtain material benefits from [the accused woman]. She would buy him, on his own account, whatever he wanted and send money whenever he needed it," the barrister said.
Jurors also heard the woman would drop everything or move around her schedule to go and pick up the boy at times.
"There's something mildly sad about that but it reflects an earnestness at this point in time," Mr Pararajasingham said.
Ultimately, the barrister said his client was not the calculated and sophisticated manipulator, or the cultivator of a secret relationship, the prosecution had alleged.
The defence closing address is set to continue on Thursday before acting Justice John Burns summarises the trial.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Canberra Rape Crisis Centre 6247 2525; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380.
