One teacher accused of halting four boys in the late 1970s argued that there was no duty under the social standards of the time that prevented her from having sex with the students.
Helga Lam taught languages in a school in Sydney’s oriental suburbs for almost five decades and was arrested in 2021 because of the alleged historical sexual abuse of children from various students.
The accusations were fired in July, after NSW’s criminal appeal court found that it could not be prosecuted because of its genre.
This Court considered the relevant law of the 1970s, which was revoked in 1984, applied only to men who abuse boys.
The four former Students launched civil procedures against the NSW government seeking compensation and received $ 2.5 million in agreements.
The state, which has acknowledged that it has violated its duty to men, is now seeking Mrs. Lam, seeking court orders that she can pay a significant part of that money.
She denied that any sexual activity occurred, but also argued that even if this happens, social standards during the 1970s did not prevent her from having sex with students.
On Wednesday, the state lawyer, David Lloyd SC, told NSW’s Supreme Court that, despite changing their minds, teachers sleeping with children were still seen as indecent in the 1970s.
“She owed this duty and clearly this duty was violated,” he told Judge Ian Harrison.
Lloyd argued that the abuse of the four students occurred, saying that direct evidence corroborated the allegations.
“As the hell is said, in the case of Mrs. Lam, that all this is invented … It’s not totally clear,” he said.
Men, under interrogation, all denied conspiring each other or inventing the allegations for a financial payment or to help explain infidelities in their own marriages, Lloyd said.
Mrs. Lam was accused of various acts of abuse in 1978 and 1979, including sex with students in an employee room, classrooms, unit and behind the scenes during a school production.
She supposedly flirted with school students, making inappropriate comments about her genitals and sexual activities.
One of the students said he was instructed to climb a window and descend a drainage tube after his then girlfriend entered a classroom where he was having sex with Mrs. Lam.
The teacher threatened to expel the girl the next day and began to laugh when she remembered how her underwear were on the floor while arguing with the student, according to court documents.
Another student who was allegedly sexually abused that he was intimidated in the playground by a boy who told him to stop spreading rumors about Mrs. Lam.
The court could make an inference that bullying was ordered by the then teacher, Lloyd said.
When another school teacher saw someone who looked like Mrs. Lam hugging a boy in his lap in the employee room, the other teacher complained to the principal.
However, the complaint was nowhere, Lloyd told the court.
“His response, she said, was scorned,” he said.
The state was unable to conduct proper investigation into the claim that could have discovered more abuse and resulted in Mrs. Lam’s fired before causing additional damage, Lloyd said.
No reports of this complaint or any school investigation of any accusation was discovered, the court said.
Mrs. Lam denied that she has to pay any of the $ 2.5 million settlement and questioned the reasonableness of the amounts paid by the government.
Lloyd argued that Mrs. Lam should deliver more than half of the total settlement as she committed a “serious departure” of the standards due to sexually abusing the boys.
The audience continues on Thursday.
