A former New South Wales teacher has had her historical child sexual abuse conviction quashed, marking her as the second individual to successfully argue that women were not legally accountable for such crimes under the laws of the time.
Gaye Grant, now in her late 70s, was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2022 after pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child in the 1970s. The conviction came after allegations that she had abused a boy she met when he was 10 years old. The boy had confided in Grant about being bullied, and the abuse reportedly began with the boy sitting on her lap and fondling her, later escalating to kissing and sexual intercourse.
The boy attempted to distance himself from Grant in the late 1970s, but she wrote to him expressing her love. After serving nearly 15 months behind bars, Grant was released on bail in March, following the release of another former teacher, Helga Lam, who had similar charges dismissed.
The allegations against Lam were dismissed in a landmark judgment that established women could not be held legally responsible for abusing boys under historical laws that only applied to male offenders. This precedent set the stage for Grant’s appeal.
On Friday, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal upheld Grant’s appeal and quashed her conviction. Her legal team argued that there was precedent for a successful appeal despite a guilty plea if the appellant could not be legally convicted of the offense under the laws at the time.
Grant’s district court conviction, which had resulted in a six-year prison sentence set to expire in September 2029, has now been voided.
