An Australian mother has been charged by police after allegedly placing a listening device in her son’s pocket when he began returning home with unexplained bruises.
Skye Cooper’s seven-year-old son, who is autistic, non-verbal and has epilepsy, had been attending a primary school in eastern Victoria.
Ms Cooper said she first noticed bruising on her son’s arm last year. But it was his increasingly distressed behaviour when being taken to school that caused her the greatest concern.
“When he came home with a couple of bruises, multiple times, we kept an eye on it,” the 36-year-old previously told the Daily Mail.
“While dropping him off at school, he started to become very irate. He did not want to leave the car. He was very verbal about that for a non-verbal child.
“He had never shown any aggression or that type of behaviour before attending that school or after attending that school.”
After hearing about other concerned parents using listening devices with their children, Ms Cooper decided to purchase one online.
She said she placed the device in her son’s pocket each morning from June until October 2025. When she later listened to the recordings, Ms Cooper said she was shocked by what she heard.
Skye Cooper, who allegedly placed a listening device in her son’s pocket after he started coming home with mysterious bruises, has been charged by police. She is pictured
Ms Cooper’s son started coming home with bruises which looked like finger marks (pictured)
She alleged that a teacher’s aide who worked with her son told him: “If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you.”
“That was said at least three times. I couldn’t keep putting him through that and I had enough evidence to pull him out of that school,” Ms Cooper said.
“He copped a lot of verbal abuse from the teacher’s aide he was working with one-on-one.
“It got worse, and you could hear him screaming in the recording. He was quite distraught. It was heartbreaking to listen to.
“I’m trying to protect my child. I went to the Victorian Disability Workers Commission to make a formal complaint.”
Ms Cooper said the aide initially denied making the alleged remarks. However, after being shown the recordings, the aide sent her what Ms Cooper described as a “p***-poor” apology letter.
In the letter, the aide said she “cannot specifically recall stating these words” but was “remorseful such a statement was made”.
“I clearly used words that I should not have used,” the aide wrote in the apology.
Ms Cooper (pictured) said she used a listening device to determine what her son was experiencing at school
The Daily Mail is not suggesting that the aide was responsible for the child’s bruises.
In Victoria, it is a criminal offence to use a listening device to record a private conversation without the consent of others involved.
Ms Cooper has now been charged with ‘regulation of installation, use and maintenance of a listening device’ between September and October last year.
The shocked mother told the ABC: ‘I was trying to protect my child. I just couldn’t make sense of it, that… the tables have been turned on me.’
Ms Cooper told the Herald Sun she planned to fight the charge, which was scheduled to be heard by the La Trobe Valley Magistrates’ Court in February.
‘It’s not even about the money, it’s the principle of it. Why am I the one getting punished?’ she said.
Ms Cooper said she has been informed by police that if she pleaded guilty to the charge and donated $300 to a suitable charity, she would not be convicted.
Police had originally interviewed Ms Cooper and released her without charge.
‘I thought it was ridiculous,’ she told the Daily Mail at the time.
‘I still would’ve done it. I think any mother would self-sacrifice to protect their child.’
Ms Cooper enrolled her son in another school where she said he had been doing a lot better.
A spokesperson Victoria’s Department of Education repeated their statement from May when contacted for comment by the Daily Mail regarding the charge.
‘The safety of students at school is our priority, and the priority of our educators,’ they said.
‘We always urge parents or carers to raise any safety concerns directly with their school so they can be investigated fully.’