What turns a woman into a sex monster? Blanche Clark investigates the complex motivations that drive female sex offenders and their devastating effect on victims

SHE was an unhappily married 42-year-old who behaved like a self-indulgent teenager.

She cared for her two children, but didn't maintain discipline or set boundaries.

She enjoyed hanging out with her son's friends and was flattered when one paid her attention in a way her husband did not.

Female sex crimes on the rise

Never mind that he was 13 years old and she was a parent trusted by others to act responsibly.

He seemed mature and she felt free to turn to him for affection.

What you've got is this adult who basically is making children whose minds aren't ready get aroused and that is massively confusing for them when their body responds

She bought and drank alcohol with him. She showed him pornographic films. She showered him with gifts, including jewellery, skateboards and money and eventually funded his drug habit, which developed alongside her own.

For three-and-half years they had sex regularly, about weekly or fortnightly. She even phoned his school pretending to be his mother to get him out of class.

media_camera Karen Ellis' mugshot following her arrest for child sex offences. Picture: Herald Sun

This case is the latest in a number of high-profile court cases involving female sex offenders over the past decade.

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But Melbourne woman Deborah Goulopoulos was no Mrs Robinson - the fictional character immortalised in the 1967 movie The Graduate for seducing 20-year-old college graduate Benjamin Braddock.

Goulopoulos's victim was aged between 13 and 16 at the time of the offences, a vulnerable time for adolescent boys.

A teenage boy may fantasise about being seduced by a sexually experienced older woman, but in reality his normal development is at stake.

Melbourne adolescent psychologist Michael Carr Gregg says there is a “massive power imbalance” when an adult, whether male or female, preys on an adolescent victim.

“What you've got is this adult who basically is making children whose minds aren't ready get aroused and that is massively confusing for them when their body responds,” Carr Gregg says.

He says four key developmental tasks are decimated, including the need for children between the ages of 13 and 15 to form age-appropriate relationships.

“As a result, a second developmental task - which is identity formation, answering the question `who am I?' - is also interrupted because peers help you distance yourself from mum and dad and help you with a third developmental task, which is psychologically emancipation to have the space to figure out who you are and take healthy risks,” he says.

media_camera Trevor John Alexander and wife Elspeth McKenzie were singing teachers accused of sex acts with students. Sex abuse charges against both were quashed. Picture: HWT library

Carr Gregg says the effect on a victim's school and vocational work is profound.

“School becomes incredibly secondary, and in same cases they forget school altogether and their whole world revolves around this predatory adult,” he says.

“It takes years and years of therapy to put the pieces back together again.”

In a statement tendered to the court, Goulopoulos's victim said the sexual relationship had made him sick and his life had spiralled after she got him addicted to the drug speed.

In the 2004 case of 36-year-old physical education teacher Karen Ellis, who pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16, her 15-year-year old victim defended her actions and insisted he was unusually mature for his age and not affected by the illegal relationship.

However, the 2005 Court of Appeal judgment states he failed to complete all of his year 10 examinations and failed the year. He also became estranged from his mother and family.

They didn't feel empowered to be able to report this kind of abuse because they didn't think they would be believe

“(The boy's) more recent statement shows a commendable loyalty, but also an insouciance about the moral issues involved that would be disturbing but for the fact that he was still only 16 at the time he made it,” Justice Frank Callaway said in his judgment.

A Deakin University study, published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse in 2011, provides further evidence that female sex offenders are as dangerous as their male counterparts.

media_camera School teacher Michelle Dennis was jailed for four years for having sex with two boys. Picture: HWT library

A survey of nine men and five women who had been sexually abused by women found both sexes suffered similar trauma.

“Though not clinically validated, they talked about having depression, anxiety, relationship problems, lack of sexual desire, as well as a mistrust and fear of women,” Associate Professor David Mellor says.

The research was conducted by Rebecca Deering as part of her doctorate and supervised by Mellor at Deakin University's School of Psychology.

Mellor says those surveyed also expressed frustration that society did not taking female sexually offending seriously.

“They didn't feel empowered to be able to report this kind of abuse because they didn't think they would be believed,” he says.

Forensic psychologist Professor James Ogloff, of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Monash University, says sexual abuse is still the rarest crime committed by women, who account for 1-1.5 per cent of sex offenders.

Prof Ogloff says there are three types of female sex offenders: those who engage in sex offending with a male partner; those who have deep psychological problems stemming from their own abuse and go on to sexually abuse their own children or a relative; and, the most common, teachers or adults in a position of care who form an attachment to a teenage boy.

Even though they might be 30 or 40 years old, psychologically they represent themselves as 15 or 16 and therefore they justify this as love and legitimate

He says male teachers who become involved with students tend to be married men driven by sexual interest and the sexual encounter occurs once or a few times.

media_camera This photo of Pamela Smart was used in evidence in her murder consipracy trial that ended this week when she was found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. The photo, taken by a friend of hers, was given to her teenage lover William Flynn to be developed, according to the prosecution. Pam Smart. SUPPLIED PHOTO: AP

“For female sex offenders in that circumstance, while there is obviously a sexual element, it tends to be a more search for emotional connection,” Prof Ogloff says.

“Quite often they might be struggling with their own relationships. They feel they are in love with the young person and they getting a lot of sexual excitement out of the relationship, but there is typically a stronger emotional attachment than with the guys.”

Carr Gregg believes women who have relationships with teenage boys are psychologically unwell.

“It's a kind of arrested development. Even though they might be 30 or 40 years old, psychologically they represent themselves as 15 or 16 and therefore they justify this as love and legitimate,” he says.

In Goulopoulos's case, a report from forensic psychologist Patrick Newton, dated November 21, 2012, stated that she had turned to her children for emotional support and friendship after her marriage deteriorated.

“Mr Newton's opinion is that you have experienced significant and persisting symptoms of both depression and anxiety. He said you had long-standing difficulties since childhood, feeling isolated and lonely, that you have had relatively few social connections and have experienced persistent anxiety when faced with the need to make any connections with others to go beyond the merely functional or transitory,” Judge Douglas said in her sentencing statement.

“He said your depressive symptoms have been manifest in chronic lowering of your mood, poor self-esteem and impaired self-confidence.”

These factors were taken into consideration in her sentencing, but Judge Douglas said she had to send a strong message about the “morally reprehensible and inappropriate crime”.

Judge Douglas sentenced Goulopoulos on December 6 to a maximum of seven years' jail, with a five-year minimum.

In Victoria, the maximum penalty for the offence of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child aged between 10 and 16 and under the care, supervision or authority of the accused, is 15 years' jail.

The now 52-year-old was also placed on the sexual offenders’ register, though it is important to note she is not a paedophile, which refers specifically to those attracted to prepubescent children.

In his judgment in the Ellis case, the Court of Appeal's Justice Callaway wrote: “The approach of the courts to sentencing female offenders has changed over the years in reflection of the community's views.

“The principle at stake is equality ... it is no longer acceptable that an offender be given a different sentence solely because of his or her sex.”

Carr Gregg says society must treat female sexual offenders as seriously as male offenders.

“There is no difference in the psychological devastation - sex abuse is sex abuse - and it doesn't matter whether it is perpetrated by a female or a male - it is the same thing,” he says.