Rotorua primary school teacher Erin Jarmey sentenced for indecent act with child

"Goodnight gorgeous. Sleep well. Don't be sorry. You need sleep. It's been a busy day. Thank you for today's events. Hugs kisses."

This was a message primary school teacher Erin Jarmey sent to a pre-teen girl with whom she developed an inappropriate relationship over an estimated nine-month period.

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty and was yesterday sentenced on a representative charge of an indecent act with a child - behaviour her lawyer described as a "horrific mistake" and a "tragedy of Shakespearean proportions".

The indecent acts covered by the charge related to hugging and kissing, described by witnesses as the pair "touching and caressing each other's bodies" and a "lover's cuddle".

According to the summary of facts, one of the kissing episodes lasted for several minutes.

The kissing most frequently happened when Jarmey picked up or dropped the girl off. The neighbours who saw it initially didn't realise it was the pre-teen girl, mistaking her for an older girl.

Jarmey was a senior teacher at a Rotorua primary school and first met the victim through her role there. But she was never the child's teacher and the offending didn't happen when the girl was a student at the school.

Terms of endearment

What may have started as an innocent friendship between the teacher and the girl turned into something more after the contact between the pair increased.

Jarmey had befriended the young girl's family and offered to pick her up and take her to extra-curricular activities.

The pair sent an estimated nearly 6000 messages over Messenger Kids, and also emailed each other.

Hundreds of messages discovered by police used terms of endearment including "princess, hun, love you, hugs and kisses, gorgeous girl, beautiful, and sweetheart".

The pair would greet each other each day, and say goodnight in the evening, with most of their goodnight conversations happening between 9pm and 11pm.

Jarmey would often go for a walk in the evening and call the girl, having conversations that would last an hour or more.

She bought the young girl a significant Christmas gift, and even after Jarmey was under investigation, the pair continued to contact each other over the Roblox platform.

Enduring contact, despite investigation

After Jarmey was charged with doing an indecent act on a child, she was told by police to stop communicating with the young girl.

She was also stood down from her teaching role at the primary school.

However, she chose to attend an activity outside of school that the young girl was involved in and was observed taking photos of her with other young people.

She'd also continued to message the girl on Roblox, with her replying to the young girl's message of "I can't have this be goodbye" with, "I hope this all works out. I'm never saying goodbye."

The conversation continued with the same sentiment of the pair not wanting their contact to end.

'A horrific mistake'

Yesterday, Jarmey sat in the dock with her head down and her hands clasped during her sentencing in the Rotorua District Court, where both her supporters and the victim's parents were seated in the public gallery.

Her lawyer, Andrew Schulze, said she'd made a "horrific mistake" and the situation was a "tragedy of Shakespearean proportions". It marked the end of her 18-year career as a teacher and the impacts would go well beyond any sentence imposed.

He said Jarmey was struggling to "come to grips with how this all came about", was undertaking counselling, and had considerable family support.

He sought a discount for previous good character, remorse and prospects of rehabilitation.

Judge Greg Hollister-Jones said a letter of remorse provided to him from Jarmey showed she accepted she had crossed a line and had developed an inappropriate relationship with the girl.

In her letter, quoted by the judge, she expressed her "heartfelt apologies", and said she was "deeply remorseful and ashamed by the effects it has caused to everyone involved".

"Reflecting on the situation I recognise that the mentorship friendship was blurred, became messy. It was not a romantic relationship. When she wanted more of my time I should have backed away but I didn't," she wrote.

"I want to express my sincere regret that I did not set firm enough boundaries."

However, the judge assessed that based on her letter and a pre-sentence report she lacked insight on some aspects of her offending.

He said she seemed to be "struggling to fully accept the physical aspects of the friendship", outlined in the summary of facts.

He declined a discrete discount for remorse, which her lawyer sought on top of the 25 percent discount for guilty pleas.

Judge Hollister-Jones did accept that before the offending Jarmey had been of "exemplary character", and referred to multiple good character references he'd received in her support. He gave a 10 percent discount for prior good character and prospects of rehabilitation.

After beginning with a starting point of three years imprisonment and factoring in total discounts of 35 percent, he arrived at a sentence of 23 months' imprisonment.

Judge Hollister-Jones said it was appropriate for this to be served as home detention.

The offending - while a significant breach of trust - hadn't involved contact with the victim's genitals, Jarmey was a first offender, and she had good prospects of rehabilitation.

Jarmey received a final sentence of 11 months' home detention.

*This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.

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