{"id":642653,"date":"2026-05-01T11:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642653\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T11:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:59:10","slug":"former-hunter-high-school-teacher-jailed-for-sexually-assaulting-teenage-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/642653\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Hunter high school teacher jailed for sexually assaulting teenage boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who groomed and sexually abused a teenage boy while she was working as a high school teacher near Newcastle has been sentenced to at least two years in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karly Rae, 37, pleaded guilty to four offences, including having sexual intercourse with a child aged between 14 and 16, grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity and possessing child abuse material.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle District Court heard Rae was working at a Hunter high school when she contacted her 15-year-old victim via social media in September 2024.<\/p>\n

The boy attended the same school, but did not know Rae because she worked on a different part of the school campus.<\/p>\n

Judge Peter Marr today sentenced Rae to a maximum three years and three months’ jail, with a non-parole period of two years.<\/p>\n

“I’m satisfied no sentence other than imprisonment can be the only sentence in relation to this matter,” he said.<\/p>\n

Rae cried and tried to speak to the judge as the sentence was handed down.<\/p>\n

Someone sitting in the public gallery yelled out “don’t do this, please”.<\/p>\n

The court was told the pair communicated several times before Rae asked the boy to join an encrypted app.<\/p>\n

She suggested they should hang out, and later took him to a local sportsground, where she had sexual intercourse with him.<\/p>\n

Several days later, Rae admitted in messages to her victim that she “should never have done it”.<\/p>\n

She told her victim “it’s my fault” and “I take full responsibility”.<\/p>\n

\"Karly<\/p>\n

Karly Rae pleaded guilty to several offences, including grooming a child for sexual activity. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

When Rae was arrested, police took her phone and found messages she sent on social media to the boy that included several videos where she exposed herself.<\/p>\n

Rae also admitted to committing an act with the intention of perverting the course of justice.<\/p>\n

The court heard that while she was on bail, with an apprehended violence order in place, Rae called the victim and asked him to lie.<\/p>\n

No positive school memories: victim<\/p>\n

The court heard the victim struggled to think of positive memories from his time at school.<\/p>\n

A victim impact statement was read out to the court on his behalf.<\/p>\n

“Every time I drive past the school I think about it,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

He said that now he understood what happened to him, he cried.<\/p>\n

The statement said every time he heard the word “schoolteacher”, he thought about what happened to him.<\/p>\n

The victim said he felt like he had let his family down.<\/p>\n

Judge not convinced about remorse<\/p>\n

Judge Marr took several factors into account when handing down the sentence, including moral culpability, remorse and the risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n

He said he did not think Rae would reoffend in this way.<\/p>\n

The court heard that leading up to and at the time of Rae’s offending she was experiencing mania, resulting in increased energy, increased sex drive and an impairment in judgement.<\/p>\n

Judge Marr said he was satisfied the expert report was accurate.<\/p>\n

But he told the court he was yet to be persuaded that genuine remorse had been exhibited by the offender.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/p>\n

Karly Rae cried when she was handed a prison sentence in Newcastle District Court. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)<\/p>\n

The court heard she had admitted what she did was wrong and felt embarrassed.<\/p>\n

But Judge Marr said she had failed to put herself in the shoes of a 15-year-old.<\/p>\n

He noted she met the victim at her place of work, a school, and had recently completed a course on her responsibilities to child protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who groomed and sexually abused a teenage boy while she was working as a high school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,311157,176540,311156,44,119631,6671],"class_list":["post-642653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-child-grooming","tag-karly-rae","tag-newcastle-district-court","tag-news","tag-school-teacher","tag-sexual-assault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}