Teacher who abused boy freed and cleared due to gender
A former NSW teacher has had a historical child sex conviction quashed, becoming the second person to successfully argue women could not be legally responsible for abusing boys under laws in place at the time.
Gaye Grant, who is now in her late 70s, was jailed in December 2022 for abusing a boy in the 1970s after pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child.
After almost 15 months behind bars, the ex-teacher was released on bail and given leave to appeal in March following the release of another former teacher, Helga Lam, who had historical sex abuse charges quashed in February.
The allegations against Lam were thrown out in a landmark judgment that ruled women could not be legally responsible for abusing boys under past laws that only covered male offenders.
On Friday, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal upheld Grant's appeal and quashed her conviction.
"A miscarriage of justice occurred because the appellant, a woman, was convicted of a charge which was founded on charges for which she could never lawfully be convicted," the three appeal judges said in a written judgment.
Grant's sexual abuse started in 1977, when the boy was in year 5.
She would get him to visit her home while her family was out.
The two years of abuse commenced with her getting the boy to sit on her lap and fondle her breasts before it escalated to masturbation and sexual intercourse.
By mid-1979, the boy, now in high school, "started to realise the abnormality of his sexual relationship with the appellant", the judgment said.
"He started to distance himself from her and eventually informed her that he intended to end their relationship," it said.
"This news caused the appellant to be visibly upset."
The former student reported the abuse to police in 2021 and Grant, in a police interview, admitted to having sexual intercourse with him more than 40 years earlier.
In March, Grant was released on bail after a court found the ex-teacher stood a good chance of overturning her conviction because of the Lam judgment.
Her legal team had argued there was legal precedent for an appeal to be entertained despite a guilty plea if the appellant could not be legally convicted of the offence.
The appeal win voids Grant's District Court conviction, which led to a six-year jail sentence being imposed.
That sentence had been due to expire in September 2029.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
