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A high school maths and religion teacher who had a series of sexual encounters with one of her 15-year-old male students will serve 12 months in jail, with the judge finding she had "already paid a high price for her extremely stupid behaviour’’. The 51-year-old, who cannot be named, cried repeatedly in the dock as Downing Centre District Court Judge Colin Charteris described how she developed an inappropriate relationship with her former maths student in mid-2008 by setting up secret tutoring sessions and giving him lifts home from school. After one such lift, the Sydney teacher let the boy touch her breasts, and later gave him her phone number. "She was a mature woman, she knew well that she was doing wrong,’’ Judge Charteris said. ‘‘With her long history as a school teacher she was well aware that such a relationship is forbidden ... that it was not a level playing field between her and the victim.’’ The court heard that the first encounter occurred when the teenager contacted the teacher to request a private maths tutoring session during the July 2008 school holidays. The teacher agreed to the private lesson and invited him to her home. During the course of the lesson the teacher and student consumed alcohol together, before having oral sex. The teacher reportedly said "I could get into big trouble for this", but then had intercourse with the boy. The court heard that over the following six to eight weeks there were a number of other sexual encounters, initiated variously by the teacher or the student, including in a school storeroom, in the teacher's car, and at the boy’s home. The teenager told his friends about the sex, and soon after rumours of the activities reached the school, which initiated an investigation, leading to the teacher’s resignation. Not long after, the boy went to police. The teacher was charged with and pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse. She also admitted indecent assault. Judge Charteris said that the fact that the teenager ‘‘appeared to welcome the sexual activity’’ did not in any way excuse the teacher’s actions because ‘‘as a 15-year-old boy, the victim did not have consent to give’’. ‘‘Parents do not send their children to school for those children to become sexual opportunities for the teaching staff,’’ his honour said. However, he found that the teacher’s judgement had been impaired by the depression she had been diagnosed with two years earlier following the break-up of her marriage. ‘‘The offender ... had a reduced sense of self-worth. She formed the view that she had lost all sense of who she was and what she stood for.’’ During her sentencing hearing last week, the teacher tearfully told the court: "I had this huge need to feel loved.’’ Judge Charteris said that the teacher was ‘‘vulnerable’’ and her judgement had been ‘‘adversely affected’’ though he questioned ‘‘why she sought solace with a 15-year-old male’’. Her mental condition amounted to ‘‘special circumstances’’ warranting a reduction in sentence, Judge Charteris said. He found that the teacher was ‘‘very genuinely remorseful’’ having told the court that she now found her own actions ‘‘sickening’’ and was concerned for the recovery of her victim. The teacher had ‘‘already paid a high price for her extremely stupid behaviour’’, he said. Having resigned from the high school in disgrace, her attempts to find other employment at schools and education-related services had been thwarted by anonymous phone calls informing her new employer of the charges against her. ‘‘She has lost her teaching career forever, but she must have realised there was an extreme risk of this happening as a result of her behaviour,’’ Judge Charteris said. The judge gave the teacher a 33 per cent discount on her sentence for her early guilty plea and special circumstances. The 12-month non-parole period, with a two-year three-month head sentence is well below the maximum 12-year sentence available for the offence. She will be eligible for parole in August next year.