CCTV of moment ex-uni dean Dianne Jolley found threatening letters played in court

A court has been played intercepted phone calls and CCTV footage in the trial of an ex-uni dean accused of sending herself threatening letters.

An ex-senior academic accused of fabricating a harassment campaign against herself confessed she’d been “naughty” in a phone call intercepted by police, a court has heard.

Dianne Jolley, the former dean of science at the University of Technology Sydney, is on trial in the NSW District Court for allegedly sending herself and colleagues a series of threatening letters in 2019 and 2020.

Ms Jolley, 51, is accused of sending herself 11 letters carrying grim warnings, and eight notes to her colleagues, amid the university’s review into the viability of a Chinese medicine course in her faculty.

She has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges including causing financial disadvantage by deception and 16 counts of conveying information likely to make a person fear for their safety.

Dianne Jolley, the former dean of science at UTS. Picture: James Gourley / NCA NewsWire

The court has heard the university spent more than $127,000 in personal protection for Ms Jolley due to safety fears sparked by the notes.

On Monday, the Downing Centre District Court heard a recording of a phone call between the researcher and her assistant Doreen Borg from November 16, 2019.

It was the day after Ms Jolley was arrested by police and she told Ms Borg she had been cracking under pressure from work and the ongoing threats against her.

She went on to say she made “some bad judgment calls” and sent two of the letters when she felt her support was “disappearing”.

“The thing that scares me is that I’ve been naughty twice and now I’m going to be accused of everything … there’s still some people out there doing the wrong thing,” Ms Jolley said.

“I don’t think they’re gonna give me my job back though. Because you don’t make those two mistakes.”

One of the letters allegedly sent by former Dean of Science at the University of Technology Sydney Dianne Jolley to herself.

Ms Borg appeared emotional as she sat in the witness box and wiped away tears as the recording ended.

During the call both women sent their love to each other and Ms Borg urged Ms Jolley to “enjoy your break” with her husband.

Earlier the jury was played two CCTV recordings from Ms Jolley’s home and office respectively, showing her finding two of the letters.

Prosecutors allege the researcher penned the letters before staging their discoveries.

The first video played to the jury, from October 11, 2019, showed Ms Jolley walking down the driveway of and across the road from her south Sydney home, appearing to be empty-handed.

She returns sometime later, clutching a bundle of paper items, including a rolled up newspaper and what appears to be a catalogue.

The video did not show where the researcher obtained the bundle.

Ms Jolley was shown to throw the newspaper in the bin and place the remaining items on a glass table on the veranda.

Some of the letters purported to have been dipped in ‘nasty bacteria’.

A man with a ladder later arrives at the home and is shown in the footage speaking with Ms Jolley on the veranda for some time, before her husband pulls up in the driveway.

While the two men speak, Ms Jolley is shown rummaging through the bundle and pulling out a piece of paper, which she scrolls up and begins throwing to her dog.

Crown prosecutor Roger Kimbell said in his opening address to the jury that the paper she was seen throwing was allegedly the envelope of a threatening letter she claimed to have been sent.

The letter, which the Crown alleges Ms Jolley sent herself, read: “I KNOW WHERE YOU WORK, I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, I KNOW WHAT YOU WEAR.”

In the footage, Ms Jolley throws the ball of paper eight times, patting the border collie on each occasion it returns the makeshift toy.

Dianne Jolley denies the allegations. Picture: James Gourley / NCA NewsWire

After the man leaves and her husband goes inside, Ms Jolley returns to the veranda and unfurls the catalogue and recoils as she finds the letter.

She drops it on the ground before her husband comes outside to comfort her and takes a photograph of the note.

Ms Jolley then places the letter and scrunched up paper, which she had allegedly been throwing to her dog, in a brown police forensic bag and takes it inside.

In the second video, taken at UTS headquarters on Broadway on November 13, 2019, Ms Jolley is seen to arrive at her desk and begin typing away at a laptop.

There are 19 letters tendered as evidence in the trial. Picture: Supplied

She later walks from her glass-walled office and down a hallway, before returning with a piece of paper held gingerly between her forefinger and thumb.

After showing it to her assistant, she takes the sheet of paper into her office and photographs it with her mobile phone.

Mr Kimbell told the court Ms Jolley reported to security that she found a note on the printer reading: “Dianne, we have removed a dean before and we can do it again. You don’t belong here. Either you leave or we will do it.”

He said Ms Jolley’s computer was traced to printing two documents at the office that day.

The academic was arrested by police at her office two days later.

The trial continues.