Obsessive teacher Fiona Austin found guilty of stalking student at Melbourne Secondary School

The high school teacher held her teenage victim back after class and sent him thousands of texts — including one to his mum in the middle of the night.

Fiona Austin preyed on her victim at the now-defunct Melbourne Secondary School in late 2014.

An obsessed high school teacher has been found guilty of stalking and harassing her teenage student over a years-long campaign after she blamed the boy for getting her sacked.

Fiona Austin, 53, preyed on her victim at the now-defunct Melbourne Secondary School in late 2014 where she was hired by fake principal Neil Lennie.

The year 11 student was forced to seek protection from his accounting teacher who repeatedly held him back after class, penned poison blog posts and harassed him over social media under fake screen names including one where she adopted the boy’s surname.

In just 14 months, Austin called, texted and emailed the student a total of 4000 times — about nine times a day.

Fiona Austin leaves the Victorian County Court. Picture: Mark Stewart.

Austin was also found guilty of stalking the boy’s mother — contacting her about three times a day — including a text in the middle of the night instructing her to: “Check on (your son)”.

Austin, who represented herself at trial in the County Court, was found guilty last week of three counts of stalking and one count of using a carriage service to harass.

The court heard the disturbing campaign, which the former student said continues to haunt, was sparked after he let Austin borrow his computer hard drive.

Upon returning it, Austin told the boy, who was then 17, she had been unable to sleep and had found his personal journal on the hard drive and read it.

Soon after Austin began holding the teenager back after class — initially to talk about his subject choice next year, but quickly the topic shifted to personal discussions about “her and him”.

On one occasion, a staff member saw the two speaking in a classroom alone, almost an hour after class had ended.

The student wrote to the school at the end of 2014 saying he had become so stressed about her intense attention that he was “uneasy” about going to school at all.

“I do not want to continue to have one-on-one conversations with her … in which I feel trapped and that when I ask to leave she prevents me from going by blocking the door or grabbing me,” he wrote.

Austin was told to stay away from the student – an order she refused – and was sacked the following day.

Fiona Austin was hired by fake principal Neil Lennie. Picture: David Geraghty.

The Herald Sun earlier revealed in its podcast Class Act, the school was dramatically shut down by the government in 2015 over safety concerns.

Following her dismissal, Austin bombarded the mother and son with messages where she claimed “I am the victim in this”.

Austin also created Twitter, YouTube and Wordpress accounts in their names – something they say has prevented their ability to get and maintain jobs as the defamatory content remains online to this day.

Austin was arrested in October 2016 where police found 128 web searches on her computer relating to the student, Google street view images of the mother’s house and photographs of the teenager.

The victim blaming continued during a pre-sentence hearing on Friday where Austin labelled the pair “liars”.

Austin repeatedly referred to her former student and his mother’s victim impact statements as “creative writing exercises”.

In them, the pair detailed how the crime had polluted their lives forever.

“I have recurring dreams where I am being chased, where she is trying to get close to me, to touch me,” the former student wrote.

“The visceral waves of terror, dread and despair run through me,” he said.

Prosecutor Robert Barry argued for an immediate term of imprisonment, saying Austin lacked insight into her offending and the harm caused.

Austin – who maintains “there was no harm” – said she will appeal the verdict.

The matter was adjourned for Austin to undergo a psychological assessment.