Michelle was a trusted teacher at a Catholic school for girls. Now she’s been jailed after committing a heinous crime
A Catholic school teacher who abused a student went to dinner with her victim to gain the trust of the teenager’s family.
Michelle Grant, 62, from Victoria, was sentenced to six months in prison for the shocking assault of a St Columba’s College Essendon student in the early 1990s.
On one occasion, during a sleepover, Grant and the student watched what the court described as a “lesbian film” and kissed on the couch.
The art and textile teacher then copied the scenes from the film and sexually abused the teenager, the Herald Sun reported.
Grant taught at the school from the 1980s until she was fired in 2022. She manipulated the girl from the age of 14, writing letters to her telling her she loved her.
As their ‘intimacy increased’, the teacher, who was married at the time, drew the victim naked and told a ‘web of lies to maintain the relationship’.
She gained a position of trust with the girl, went to dinner with the victim’s family and arranged to spend time with her mother.
The teacher also took the student to the theater and on trips to the countryside with her husband and the girl’s family and friends.
Catholic girls’ school teacher Michelle Grant (pictured) has been jailed after pleading guilty to sexual penetration of a child in the care of a Catholic, Catholic or Catholic educational institution.
The court heard that during these trips abroad, Grant would ‘slip away’ to have ‘physical’ contact with the victim.
The girl was enticed to stay overnight with the teacher at Moonee Ponds because she was told there would be others there too.
But there were no others present and Grant stuck her tongue in the child’s mouth, then said, “You can’t tell anyone… I could go to jail for this.”
The mother of two subsequently left her husband and moved to Essendon, where she continued her crimes against the victim.
When the teen graduated from high school, she tried to distance herself from Grant.
But she used “emotional blackmail” to maintain the “sexual relationship” and punched the victim in the face when her child finally ended it.
Grant paid the victim’s therapists to help him process the trauma years after the abuse ended.
Grant, 62, was sentenced to six months in prison for the shocking abuse of the St Columba’s College Essendon student (pictured) in the early 1990s
Police notified the education department of the charges against Grant in 2022.
Her registration was revoked and she was banned from teaching after she pleaded guilty to what Judge Gregory Lyon called “abhorrent” and “utterly unconscionable” acts.
The abuse by a “trusted teacher” has left the victim with “real, deep and lifelong harm” resulting in feelings of “shame, grief and guilt”, the judge said.
Grant was given an 18-month prison sentence for her “heinous offence”, but 12 months of that was suspended.