A former New South Wales teacher has had a historical child sex abuse conviction overturned, becoming the second person to successfully argue that women were not legally culpable for the crime under the rules in place at the time.
Gaye Grant, who is now in her late 70s, was imprisoned in December 2022 for assaulting a boy in the 1970s after pleading guilty to having an illegal sexual contact with a juvenile.
After nearly 15 months in prison, the ex-teacher was released on bail and granted permission to appeal in March, after the release of another former teacher, Helga Lam, who had historical sex abuse charges dismissed in February.
The claims against Lam were dismissed in a historic decision that established that women could not be legally held liable for the abuse of boys under earlier legislation that only applied to male perpetrators.
On Friday, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal upheld Grant’s appeal and overturned her conviction.
She was previously released on bond after a court determined that the ex-teacher’s conviction was likely to be overturned as a result of the Lam decision.
Grant’s legal team contended that there was legal precedence for a conviction appeal to be heard notwithstanding a guilty plea if the appellant could not be legally convicted of the charge.
The appeal win overturns her District Court conviction, which resulted in a six-year prison sentence.
That sentence had been set to expire in September 2029.
