Mum guilty of sexually abusing boy

A GOLD COAST mother remained silent as a jury found her guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy and sending him inappropriate text messages.

The 37-year-old was found guilty in the Southport District Court following a five-day trial to three counts of indecent treatment of a child and one count of carnal knowledge of a child.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 35 when she inappropriately touched and then had sex with the boy while he was staying with her in February and March 2017. It took the jury of six men and five women about three hours to determine the verdict.

Only 11 members of the jury deliberated after one juror fell ill during the judge’s summing up.

During the trial the jury was told how the boy, who has Asperger syndrome, had a fight with both of his parents and it was decided he would stay with the woman.

She was best friends with the boy’s mother and has a child with Asperger’s about the same age as the boy.

Prior to the boy coming to live with her, the woman had sent the boy hundreds of text messages. Among the messages was a picture of her in a singlet and G-string.

“Thought I would be kind and give you sweet dreams since you can’t see my stories anymore,” the photo caption read.

The woman claimed in her police interview that she meant to send the photo to a man she met on the dating app Tinder who had the same Christian name as the boy.

Throughout the text messages the woman declared her love and sent the boy “kisses”.

The boy kept refusing to return home until a confrontation with his father at a soccer match landed the boy in hospital. It was then his dad found the text messages.

In the first interview with police the boy denied the abuse but after the woman contacted friends on Instagram he disclosed what happened.

He told friends the woman was crazy, had “seduced” and “raped” him.

The boy soon told his mother what happened and police were called.

The woman did not cry when she was remanded in custody yesterday.

Her sentence was adjourned so the woman’s legal team could gather more supporting material.