Victim of abusive teacher Lee Joyce Dunbar confronts her in court

A woman who was sexually abused in the home of her high-school PE teacher has given an emotional statement in court.

A woman who was sexually abused by her PE teacher when she was just a teenager has bravely confronted her in court, saying she was “dehumanised into an object for her to manipulate”.

Lee Joyce Dunbar, of Five Dock in Sydney, had been due to face trial in the NSW District Court on August 15 but on Tuesday sensationally entered a plea of guilty to one charge of indecent assault.

The 69-year-old again fronted Sydney’s Downing Centre Court on Thursday and heard her victim deliver a powerful impact statement.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that she “could never have known the profound negative impact” her new PE teacher would have on her life.

“I started my high school years as a bright, normal, popular young girl. I was outgoing and confident, I was sporty and healthy,” she said.

Lee Joyce Dunbar rocked in her seat as a victim told her she ruined her life in court on Thursday.

“I ended my high school years as a broken individual, isolated from friends and family, actively planning my own suicide.”

The woman, who is now aged in her 50s, told the court that her “contact with Lee Dunbar changed the trajectory” of her life.

She said: “The future that should have been mine was stolen from me.”

The victim explained how her mental health was “deeply disturbed” and her family and social life were “corrupted” by the offending, much of which happened at the teacher’s house

She explained Dunbar, who was 26 at the time of the offending, “hid behind” her role as a teacher to “manipulate” her, providing her with “false friendship and false trust”.

“I felt safe around her,” the woman told the court.

Former teacher Lee Joyce Dunbar, pictured in 1996, sexually abused a student in 1980.

“She was manipulating my thoughts with false narratives, telling me ‘this is what people who love each other do’,” the woman said.

“I was dehumanised into an object for her to manipulate for her own pleasure.”

The woman told the court that she often thought of planning her suicide.

She said she planned to take sleeping pills, “swim out to sea and drown”.

The woman emotionally told the court the biggest impact the sexual abuse had on her life was the relationship with her mother.

“My mother found me in the shower with Lee Dunbar, unaware she was interrupting her abuse,” the woman said.

The victim also told the court her mother reacted “badly” and was not supportive of her, eventually kicking her out of the house with nothing but a basket of clothes and her school uniform.

She said her mother found it difficult to “hide her disgust in me and couldn’t look at me”, and the pair never mended their relationship.

The 69-year-old was caught in the shower by the victim’s mother, the court was told.

“I didn’t feel part of the family … my mother didn’t treat me the same,” the victim said through tears.

“I had to watch my mother not treat my children the same as my other grandchildren. I lost my mother’s respect and affection … or rather it was stolen from me, a basic right of every child, taken.”

Through tears, the woman said she had “crawled out of a very, very dark hole” and still suffered the consequences.

“I am reclaiming my power, the power that was taken from me,” she told the court.

“I am giving a voice to the vulnerable child in me that you abused. My life will forever be profoundly impacted by meeting a PE teacher called Lee Dunbar.

“She took a huge amount from me, but she didn’t break me, because here I am.”

Defence barrister Cara Feiner told the court that Dunbar had been sentenced in 1996 for offences committed after the charge before the court on Thursday.

She said the victim in the current proceedings had given a statement at the time but chose not to proceed and went back to police in 2018.

“Ms Dunbar has already served a sentence of imprisonment for similar offending at a similar time,” Ms Feiner said.

Ms Feiner told the court that Dunbar was “immature” at the time and had since developed insight into the wrongs of her past.

The court was told Dunbar was sentenced in 1996 on similar charges.

Crown prosecutor Rossi Kotsis said the victim should have felt safe in the home of someone she trusted.

“This is a case of a teacher who took advantage of a power imbalance to use a student for her sexual desires,” Mr Kotsis said.

He told the court the offending was preceded by grooming “over a number of years” and “very serious offending”.

Dunbar was arrested in November 2020 following an investigation by Strike Force Southwood, which was set up by NSW Police to investigate improper student-teacher relationships at high schools on the northern beaches in 1970s and ’80s.

She was since released on bail.

The 69-year-old pleaded guilty to abusing the female student between March 1978 and March 1980.

According to court documents, the incidents involved touching the breasts, nipple and private parts of the woman.

Dunbar will reappear in court for sentencing in September.