Teacher Diane Brimble branded ‘evil’ for asking 10-year-old boy for sex

Diane Brimble leaves the Victorian County Court. Picture: Andy Brownbill Source: News Corp Australia

A PRIMARY schoolteacher who asked a 10-year-old boy to have sex with her is an “evil woman” who stole his innocence, his parents say.

Diane Brimble, 47, tattooed the boy’s name on her chest, had images of him on her phone, and sent him social media and text messages.

In August, a County Court jury found the Hamilton mother of eight guilty of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 in 2013.

Judge Mark Taft said Brimble drove the boy to her house before offering sex, but he rejected her advances. 
“He said he wasn’t old enough to have sex and she said, ‘You are when you’re at my house’,” Judge Taft said.

Police had accused Brimble of presenting the boy with a suitcase containing a pregnancy test, condoms, truth-or-dare cards and sex toys, as well as of exposing her breasts.

The boy’s father, who cannot be named because it would identify the victim, said the family had had to move, and his son had had to repeat his education, because of Brimble’s predatory behaviour.

He said his son, who has Asperger's syndrome, thought Brimble a “horrible woman who cast a spell on him”.

“She tried to manipulate (him) to make him think she loved him and his parents did not,” he said in a statement read out in court by prosecutor Patrick Bourke.

“I feel sick every time I think of my son’s name tattooed on to her body,” he said.
He said Brimble was an “evil woman” who had robbed his son of his innocence.

The boy’s mother said her son had harmed himself: “a hell Brimble’s predatory actions thrust upon him.”

“I feel sickened ... as a mother ... that she did this under the guise of motherly love,” she said in court.
Mr Bourke argued that Brimble should be convicted, be given treatment under a community corrections order, and be placed on the sex offenders register.

Barrister Jennifer Clark, acting for Brimble, said despite a difficult life and an abusive marriage her client had fought hard to become a teacher.

Judge Taft said a psychological assessment of Brimble was a “barracker’s report” and he remained baffled by her “pyscho-sexual profile”.

“I find Ms Brimble’s conduct as bizarre as any I have ever seen,” he said.
Brimble is expected to avoid jail when sentenced on Thursday, but will never teach again