In a significant ruling, a former teacher has been relieved from the obligation to pay over $2 million in damages to former students connected to allegations of sexual abuse from fifty years ago. The judgment was delivered after a court found that at the time, the teacher was unaware that her actions were harmful.
The case centers around Helga Lam, who taught languages at a school located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs during the years 1978 and 1979. It was during this period that she allegedly subjected several students to sexual abuse.
On Friday, a judge in the New South Wales Supreme Court concluded that, based on the civil standard of proof, the abuse did indeed take place. However, the 71-year-old was deemed not negligent, as she would not have understood her behavior to be damaging at that time.
Justice Ian Harrison, in his decision, remarked, “In my experience, things were different nearly 50 years ago. This does not reflect favorably on the inadequately informed standards of that era in this country. Nevertheless, those are the standards by which Ms. Lam’s duty to foresee that her actions might result in mental harm to the plaintiffs must be assessed.”
Lam has consistently denied any allegations of sexual abuse. The accusations led to her arrest in 2021, marking a significant moment in the long-standing legal proceedings.
Lam, who has always denied that any sexual abuse occurred, was arrested in 2021.
However, the charges against her were dismissed in July 2024 after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal found she could not be prosecuted because of her gender.
That court found the relevant 1970s law, which was repealed in 1984, applied only to men abusing boys.
Four students launched civil proceedings against the NSW government in the NSW Supreme Court seeking compensation.
Eventually, they reached a $2.5 million settlement.
The state, which acknowledged it breached its duty to the men, then pursued Lam, seeking court orders that she be liable to pay a significant chunk of that money.
On Friday, Justice Harrison found that in the 1970s, the school where Lam worked ought to have been aware of the psychological consequences that students experienced after sexual abuse by an adult.
However, while the judge found the school was negligent, he did not make the same findings for Lam.
“There is simply no evidence before me of any kind to support the proposition that Ms Lam should … have been or become aware of the effects of sexual conduct between adults and minors,” he wrote.
The judge found that two of the settlements reached by the state government with the students were reasonable.
However, the remaining two were not as they were almost $600,000 higher than the amounts estimated through previous legal analysis.
If Lam was negligent however, Justice Harrison said he would have ordered she pay 35 per cent of the $2.5 million settlement amount.
He found that while she would have been refrained from assaulting her students through her contract with the school, her authority and control were limited.
The school had a higher responsibility and had failed to launch an investigation into the abuse, despite two complaints to the principal, the judge said.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
