Catholic primary school teacher, abuser released because of her sex
A NSW teacher who admitted sexually exploiting a student has been released on bail due to a historic law that didn’t recognise female perpetrators.
A Catholic primary school teacher who admitted sexually exploiting a 10-year-old student was prematurely freed from prison on Friday and may have her conviction overturned because she is female.
Gaye Grant’s successful bid for bail pending her appeal follows a landmark ruling by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal last month that women cannot be charged with certain sex offences under historic legislation that applied only to men.
In that case, 15 counts of “indecent assault upon male persons” against teacher Helga Lam, 70, were quashed because she was charged under a section of the NSW Crimes Act, repealed in 1984, that did not cover the possibility of a female perpetrator.
In his lead judgment in the Lam case, Justice Anthony Meagher found the relevant law in 1978, when the offences allegedly occurred, did not apply to conduct committed by a female upon a male.
“Section 81 was relevantly directed to the crime of sodomy upon a male and other male homosexual conduct,’’ he said.
Ms Lam, who was charged in 2021, had pleaded not guilty to the charges against four male students aged 13 to 16 at an eastern Sydney boys school that has since closed.
Grant, however, had admitted the charges of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and the Court of Criminal Appeal was on Friday faced with the unusual situation of granting bail, and leave to appeal, to an offender 14 months into her prison sentence whose guilt is not in doubt.
Her counsel told the court that her appeal must succeed on the basis of the Lam case and that she should not be in custody on an invalid charge. The only relevant evidence, he said, was that the offender is a female.
It is not known if any other female offenders will be freed under the same provision but one of the male complainants in the Lam case has called on the NSW government to amend the law, arguing it minimises the historic sexual abuse of boys at the hands of women and adds to stigma that can stop victims coming forward.
“It’s absolutely soul crushing. You just think: ‘why the hell did I even speak out in the first place’?’’ he said.
Grant, 78, a married grandmother, appeared in court in prison greens via video link on Friday and visibly exhaled when she was granted bail.
She was sentenced in December 2022 to six years and nine months jail (with a non-parole period of three years and four months) after her victim went to police in 2021 to report the offences, which had occurred more than four decades ago.
The sentencing District Court judge Andrew Haesler said Grant, a young married mother at the time, had offended against the boy over a two-year period from when he was aged about 10 to 13, and she was 20 years his senior.
He said she was known as the “cool teacher’’ at the NSW school in 1977 when she began teaching the victim. His family knew Grant socially outside of school and she treated him like a “teacher’s pet’’, listening to him when he confided to her about bullying from other students and driving him home from school.
The court heard that sexual contact began in her home when she would ask the boy to sit on her lap and fondle her breasts. This progressed to masturbation and sexual intercourse on multiple occasions when the boy would stay over, with Grant telling him she loved him and dissolving into tears when he tried to break it off.
Judge Haesler said the boy confided what was happening to a friend and also confessed at church, where he was told to make penance. He did not tell his devout Catholic parents at the time as he did not think they would believe him.
“Eventually in 2020 he did tell them, but he still did not receive the support he felt he needed,’’ Judge Haesler said.
In his victim impact statement the complainant told the court that Grant had treated him like a “toy doll” that she could pick up and play with. The abuse had stripped him of his innocence and left him living with embarrassment and shame that impacted his physical and mental health.
“To this day he has nightmares and has sought to deal with the problems by maladaptive use of drugs and alcohol,’’ Judge Haesler said.
He said a forensic psychiatrist who assessed Grant said she did not have a disorder of abnormal sexual interest.
The new interpretation of the law which saw Helga Lam’s charges quashed and could overturn Grant’s conviction has shocked legal circles.
One of the complainants in the Lam case has called for action from the NSW Attorney-General to amend the laws that could stop male victims of historic sexual abuse seeking justice.
“Our generation of men have just been tossed to kerb. Anyone who was abused by a woman before 1984 when they were a child, forget it. You go to the cops and they’ll just, I guess, give you a sympathetic look and say, ‘Hey, there’s nothing we can do.’’
Jarryd Bartle, an associate lecturer in Criminology and Justice Studies at RMIT University, said that notwithstanding changes in society’s understanding around child sexual abuse, a person could not later be punished for conduct that was not unlawful at the time.
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Michael Daley said the AG had sought advice on the matter and was considering the implications of the Lam decision.
A spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions said the director is also considering the Lam judgment.
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