A special education teacher who groomed and had sex with a 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Karly Rae, 37, was arrested in October 2024 at her home in Merewether in the New South Wales Hunter region after she had sex with the teenager from her school.
The schoolboy is not believed to require special needs support, and was taught in a different department from the one Rae worked in.
Rae then pleaded guilty to four offences, including having sexual intercourse with a child aged between 14 and 16, and grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity.
She also admitted to possessing child abuse material and committing an act with the intention of perverting the course of justice.
On Friday, Judge Peter Marr sentenced her to prison for a maximum term of three years and three months, with a non-parole period of two years, ABC News reports.
As he handed down the sentence in Newcastle District Court, Rae was seen crying and trying to speak. Someone in the public gallery was heard saying: 'Don't do this, please.'
A victim impact statement was read to the court in which the boy said that, whenever he heard the word 'schoolteacher', he thought about what had happened to him.
Karly Rae (pictured) was sentenced to a maximum of three years and three months in jail
She had pleaded guilty to four offences, including having sexual intercourse with a child aged between 14 and 16 (pictured, Newcastle District Court)
'Every time I drive past the school I think about it,' the statement, which was read out to the court on the victim's behalf, said.
The court was told he felt as though he had disappointed his family.
During proceedings, the court heard that Rae spoke to the victim several times before asking him to join an encrypted messaging application in 2024.
She then brought him to a sportsground where they had sexual intercourse, the court was told.
In texts, heard by the court, Rae messaged the teenager that it was her 'fault' and that she took 'full responsibility'.
Judge Marr noted in court that he did not believe Rae would reoffend, and was satisfied by an expert's report that she experienced mania at the time of the offences.
However, he told the court he had yet to be convinced that Rae had displayed genuine remorse, adding that she had completed a child protection course and first met the victim at the school where she worked.
'I'm satisfied no sentence other than imprisonment can be the only sentence in relation to this matter,' he said.