Teacher who married pupil she was convicted of raping dies aged 58

Ex-student and husband cared for Letourneau in her last month

Mary Kay Letourneau with the child of the man she raped in 1996 (AP)

A teacher who raped a student she later married has been reported to have died with cancer.

Mary Kay Letourneau, who taught in the Seattle area until her conviction in 1997, died on Monday, said her lawyer. She was 58.

In a statement to CNN and other outlets, David Gehrke said Letourneau died at home with relatives and Vili Fualaau, her former student and ex-husband, in attendance.

Letourneau was convicted with second-degree child rape of Mr Fualaau, who was 12 at the time. She was a 34-year-old mother with four children when the incident took place in 1996.

The ex-teacher served seven years in prison and birthed two children to Mr Fualaau – including one she was pregnant with when convicted.

The couple later married in 2005 when she was released from prison, reports CNN, but Mr Fualaau filed for legal separation in 2017.

Her ex-husband was said to have cared for Letourneau over the past month, prior to her death.

Letourneau’s long-time friend and lawyer, Anne Bremner, said “Mary was one of a kind. She was a good friend to me for twenty years and was a client.”

She added, in a statement to Abc11 News, that Letourneay “raised a beautiful and successful family and overcame great odds. She was fun, she was funny, she was brilliant, she was real. We will all miss her terribly. My heart goes out to all of her children and her family.”