Notorious ex-teacher to marry victim

SEATTLE — Mary Kay Letourneau plans to marry the former sixth-grade pupil with whom she had two children, months after her release from prison for raping him, according to an online bridal registry.

Letourneau, 43, and Vili Fualaau, 22, set a wedding date of April 16, according to their registry at a department store. Letourneau served 7½ years on a 1997 conviction for raping Fualaau, who has said in the past that he hoped to wed his former teacher.

“It’s been long overdue,” Noel Soriano, a friend of the couple, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a story published Monday. “It’s going to be fabulous, seeing them get hitched finally.”

A lawyer for Fualaau and a friend of Letourneau did not immediately return calls Monday seeking further comment.

Letourneau was a 34-year-old married mother of four when she began a sexual relationship with her then-12-year-old elementary school student in 1996. She was pregnant with Fualaau’s first child when she was arrested in 1997 and ordered to serve a six-month sentence for second-degree child rape.

In her car
One month after she was released, Letourneau was caught having sex with Fualaau in her car. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to two charges of child rape, and gave birth to the couple’s second daughter while serving her 7½-year sentence. Fualaau’s mother is raising their two daughters, aged 6 and 7.

Shortly after Letourneau was released from prison last August, the pair successfully petitioned a judge to lift a no-contact order that had barred them from seeing each other.

Soriano said Fualaau proposed last fall, but the couple has been trying to keep wedding details a secret. Details are yet to be completed, but plans call for their daughters to be flower girls, he said.

“They have gone through a lot,” Soriano said. “That they lasted this long proves how strong their love is.”