Convicted paedophile teacher appeals to overturn conviction on basis of her gender
Having pleaded guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, a former teacher now wants the conviction overturned on the basis she cannot be held legally responsible due to her gender.
Gaye Grant is appealing in the court of criminal appeal for her conviction to be quashed, rather than face a retrial, arguing that as a woman she could not be legally responsible for the crime under laws at the time.
Grant arrived at court in Sydney on Wednesday wearing a black hat, sunglasses, black veil and a face mask.
Her lawyer Stephen Boland argued there was legal precedent for a conviction appeal to be entertained despite a guilty plea, if the appellant could not be legally convicted of the offence.
Boland said while it was open for the court to return Grant’s case to the district court for the purpose of a new trial, the preferred course was for the conviction to be simply dismissed.
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Grant, who is now in her late 70s, was sentenced to jail in December 2022 for the two-year long abuse of one of her male students in the 1970s.
The boy first met Grant when he was 10 and confided in her about being bullied.
The alleged abuse began with the student sitting on Grant’s lap and fondling her, before escalating to kissing and eventually into sexual intercourse.
After the boy tried to distance himself from the teacher in the late 1970s, she wrote to him saying she loved him.
After spending almost 15 months behind bars, Grant was released on bail and given leave to appeal against her conviction after the release of another teacher, Helga Lam, who successfully had her historical sex abuse charges quashed in February.
Lam had been charged with 15 counts of indecent assault on four school boys for offences dating back to 1978.
The NSW court of criminal appeal found Lam had been convicted based on a law in force at the time which did not apply to “conduct committed by a female upon a male”.
That law was repealed and replaced in 1984.
A decision in Grant’s appeal has been reserved until a later date.