No conviction will be recorded against a 21-year-old whistleblower for accessing confidential files that revealed the prime minister’s daughter, Frances Abbott, received an undisclosed $60,000 scholarship.

Freya Newman, a former part-time librarian at the Whitehouse School of Design, was given a two-year good behaviour bond.

Newman appeared in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Tuesday after pleading guilty in September to one count of unauthorised access to restricted data.

Newman accessed student records that showed Frances Abbott had attended the design school on a “managing director’s scholarship” at the recommendation of the college’s chairman and Liberal party donor, Les Taylor.

Abbott was only the second recipient of the prize, which was not advertised to other students. Whitehouse has declined to detail the application process and criteria for awarding the scholarship.

According to its website, Whitehouse “does not currently offer scholarships to gain a place”, but the college has maintained it offers a variety of scholarships and all “are discretionary and awarded on merit”.

Newman was not able to argue that the disclosure was in the public interest as Whitehouse is a private institution and falls outside public-service whistleblower protections.

The courtroom was crowded with friends and supporters who stood in the aisles and spilled out into the halls of the complex. Outside the court, activists carried signs reading, “Free Freya” and “Blessed are the truth tellers”.

Magistrate Teresa O’Sullivan said the seriousness of Newman’s offence had been “at the lower end”, and that the confidential information she accessed had been neither highly secure nor highly sensitive.

No “significant harm” was caused as a result of the breach, O’Sullivan said.

She added that Newman had pleaded guilty at the earlier opportunity and resigned from the design school the day after accessing the restricted information.

Her relative emotional immaturity and lack of impulse control as a young person had “to some extent impaired” Newman’s decision-making, and media attention had had a “significant impact” on her mental health, O’Sullivan said.

“I accept that Ms Newman is remorseful,” she said. “She has very good prospect for rehabilitation.”

Nonetheless, O’Sullivan cited the “need for denunciation of Ms Newman’s conduct” and the imperative to “deter similar behaviour in future” in placing the whistleblower on a two-year good behaviour bond.

Activists outside the court cheered as Newman departed, surrounded by family and a media scrum. She made no comment.