A high-school teacher in Australia repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old student before trying to persuade him to lie to cops, she confessed Thursday — eight weeks after giving birth.
Karly Rae, 37, appeared in court last week with her newborn in tow to plead guilty to multiple child sex crimes, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
It’s not clear who the baby’s father is. Speaking softly, Rae said she had sex with the underage boy in October 2024, the same month she was arrested for her crimes, in various locations in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales, where she worked.
The teacher groomed her victim partly through sick flirtatious messages she exchanged with him on Snapchat and Instagram, the jury was told.
“Maybe we could have one last rendezvous before school goes back. I’ll bring my toy,” Rae wrote in a message to the boy, according to the outlet.
She also said at one point that it was “too tempting” to contact the student on Snapchat, apologizng for removing him from her contacts on the app.
“It’s my fault. I take full responsibility. Do what you want/need,” Rae wrote in response to a message from the teenager asking if they should remove each other from Snapchat.
Then while out on bail, she phoned her victim multiple times to try and get him to lie in court and was subsequently arrested again in June, 7News reported.
“In the course of those calls, it’s alleged [she] sought to persuade the complainant to give a false version of events,” Justice Hament Dhanji said at Rae’s bail hearing in June, as reported by 7News.
The teenager had told his mother about the calls, while his cousin, who had seen social-media exchanges between the pair, also alerted his parents.
Rae was granted bail again in June because she was pregnant.
The disgraced teacher, who was due to face trial in August 2026 after initially pleading not guilty to all charges, will now be sentenced in March.
She switched her plea to guilty as her lawyer, Mark Ramsland, noted she had an 8-week-old baby with her in court and asked for her case to be dealt with as a priority, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Rae claimed to have been unaware that the boy was underage, despite the fact that he was a student at her school, according to reports.
She lost her job and was ordered by the judge not to be alone in the presence of any person under 16.
Rae pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage boy, possessing child abuse material, grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity and committing an act with the intention of perverting the course of justice, the ABC reported.
