A judge has discharged the jury in the trial of a former teacher who allegedly groomed and had unlawful sexual activity with a student at an elite Sydney high school.
Judge Sophia Beckett told the jury that she was forced to make the “very unusual” decision after evidence about the health of the defence barrister came to light, threatening the fairness of proceedings.
“I am discharging you because I have reached the view that the accused cannot have a fair trial,” she told the jury at the Downing Centre district court on Monday morning.
The mathematics teacher, who cannot legally be named, was on trial for allegedly forming a sexual relationship with a minor after she became their pupil in 1984. The teacher has pleaded not guilty to one charge of carnal knowledge.
The jury was told that the defence counsel had not been well and that his illness had impacted his capacity to properly represent his client.
In four and a half years as a judge, it is the third jury Beckett has ever dismissed and one of those was due to Covid, she said.
“This is a very unusual situation but I have made a determination that it cannot continue,” she told the jury. “I want you to know that I don’t do this lightly.”
The development comes after five days of hearings, including the complainant’s cross-examination.
In his opening remarks, the crown prosecutor David Patch said the student, who turned 17 in 1984 and also cannot be named, was groomed by the teacher.
“It’s the crown case that the accused was sexually interested in the complainant from when they first met and almost immediately began grooming the complainant,” he said.
The teacher and student are alleged to have had sexual intercourse about 10 times before August 1984.
The court heard on Thursday that the teacher did not begin a relationship with the complainant until 1985, while the complainant’s former boyfriend remembers her breaking up with him in March 1984 because “she had someone new, which was the teacher”.
The complainant’s evidence and transcripts from the aborted trial will be used in a future trial, Beckett said.
A subsequent trial date, expected in the next six to 12 months, is yet to be set.
