A former Goulburn primary school teacher who spent nearly three months on remand for molesting a 15-year-old ex-student at a Wollongong beach has been spared further time behind bars.
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Cassandra Hingeley spent 11 weeks in prison without bail after being arrested at her Taralga home on January 14 last year on sexual touching charges after her "vulnerable" victim disclosed the inappropriate encounter to a social worker, who informed police.
Hingeley was released from custody by the NSW Supreme Court in April and has been on strict conditional bail ever since.
In Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, Magistrate Jillian Kiely found the time Hingeley had already spent behind bars was sufficient enough punishment for her crimes, despite the significant breach of trust her actions represented.
She sentenced Hingeley to an overall prison term of eight months, but set a non-parole period of 11 weeks, which she back-dated to cover Hingeley's prior incarceration.
As a result, Hingeley walked free from court on Wednesday afternoon on automatic parole.
A set of agreed facts tendered to the court said the teen contacted Hingeley via her Instagram profile "Cass in the country" in late 2018 and the two exchanged several messages online, including several that discussed meeting up to have sex.
On the weekend before Christmas, Hingeley told the teen: "You know I'm considering coming down this weekend".
The teen replied "if you come down tonight, I could make it out easily".
"How much do you want it?" Hingeley asked.
"So f...king much," the teen said.
Hingeley drove from Taralga to the Illawarra, picking the boy up at his Wollongong home and taking him to a beach at Thirroul.
The pair sat and talked for a while, then began kissing and hugging. Hingeley touched the teen's groin through his clothing, while he reached underneath her clothing and touched her breasts and vagina.
There was no penetration, the police facts stated.
Hingeley drove the boy back to Wollongong, stopping at a service station to buy him cigarettes, before dropping him off at Belmore Basin.
In court on Wednesday, defence barrister John Lo Schiavo said Hingeley had a long-standing diagnosis of depression but had been seeing a psychologist since her arrest, who further diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder.
He said she accepted responsibility for her actions and was working hard at her own rehabilitation.
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