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Teacher Erin Osmond takes stand at her own sexual exploitation trial

A 29-year-old teacher from Prud'homme, Sask. is on trial, charged with the sexual exploitation of a high school student in Watrous in 2013.

Erin Osmond is accused of "touching a young person for a sexual purpose and inviting him to touch her for a sexual purpose."

Osmond began a romantic relationship with the student that lasted for several months. At the beginning, the relationship was strictly student-teacher.

As the pair began to interact more, they became friends. Eventually, Osmond and the student, who can't be named because of a publication ban, became more and more romantic.

The pair met at the school and kissed, twice, in February.

"I didn't know what to do," she said in court. "I didn't know what to do with those feelings."

Osmond's contract as a substitute teacher at the school was ending February 15. She thought the kiss would be a way to finish off the relationship.

"We knew that everything was coming to an end. (A kiss) was something we wanted to experience before it was over," she said.

However, the relationship continued. Their texts became more and more romantic and sexual. On March 16, the pair met and had sex.

While Osmond said that having a relationship with a former student wasn't appropriate or ethical, she believed she wasn't breaking the law at the time. She said he was a former student, and above the age of consent.

"Emotions certainly got the best of me," she said.

At the time, Osmond's marriage was falling apart. She barely spoke to her husband at the time, and was looking for an emotional bond with someone.

"The way things had been going with my marriage, I knew there was something I wanted to be feeling that I wasn't feeling," she said.

Osmond and her husband have since reconciled.

In April 2012, the school received an anonymous tip about the affair. The school and police investigated, and Osmond was charged.

Neither the school division nor RCMP told the public about the charges, calling them an "isolated incident."

Student on stand

The student was cross-examined by defence lawyer Leslie Sullivan this morning.

On the stand, he said he felt conflicted about the relationship, and was often looking for a way out.

However, Sullivan said that wasn't credible.

"How did you tell half a dozen friends about this if you didn't want anybody to know?" she asked him.

Sullivan also raised the issue of a $400 bet he had made with one of his friends that he could sleep with a teacher, made before he consummated the affair.

"You're making a bet with your buddies, you're bragging to your friends, you're proud of it," she said. "It doesn't sound like somebody who wanted it to end."

The trial continues on Wednesday.