Auckland teacher sentenced for sexual offending involving student
'You are a teacher, and I think that is a significant aggravating factor,' he said, adding that a strong message has to be sent to others in a trusted position such as hers. 'Deterrence, denunciation and accountability require a sentence of imprisonment in your case.'
He ordered a term of two years and one month of imprisonment, just shy of the two-year threshold at which a judge is allowed to consider a non-custodial term.
The woman clutched her shoulders and started crying as his decision was announced, telling family sitting in the gallery to support her that she loved them. Her sobs turned into wails that could be heard in the courtroom after she was led by security officers out a side door for placement in a holding cell.
Judge Gibson also ordered her to be put on the child sex offender registry.
Court documents state the woman began exchanging messages with the boy via Snapchat in July 2023, about one month after she started at the school.
'From that point forward, [she] groomed [him],' the agreed summary of facts for the case state. '[She] repeatedly flirted with [the student], commenting on his smile and appearance, buying him vapes and allowing him to use her credit card.'
In September that year, the teacher drove the student to the carpark at Parakai Pools, where she performed sex acts on him. She then dropped him off at his home.
'After this incident, [she] asked [the student] to keep the incident 'on the lowdown,'' court documents state. 'She then began sending nude photographs of her body to him on Snapchat.'
The photos were accompanied by sexually explicit messages.
Two and a half weeks after the first incident, the teacher took the student and a friend of his to the movies, giving the victim two cans of alcohol. She behaved inappropriately during the movie, then dropped off the boy's friend and took the victim again to the Parakai Pools carpark, where more sexual acts occurred.
The teen did not attend today's sentencing, but Judge Gibson was handed victim impact statements from him and his mother. They were not read aloud in court, but the judge noted that both were strongly opposed to the woman receiving permanent name suppression.
'The complainant refers to his emotional and mental health having been severely impacted,' the judge said, noting that the victim also reported having lost interest in school since the incidents.
His mother was also, of course, upset that his school was not the safe place it should have been, the judge said, adding that she was 'also angry you bought alcohol for him as part of your grooming'.
Defence lawyer Emma Priest pointed out that on the last of the two incidents the boy was five days short of his 16th birthday.
The woman pleaded guilty to a representative charge of sexual conduct with a young person under 16, which is punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment. Had the boy been 16, she could not have been charged under that law.
Priest also suggested the power imbalance was less significant between a female teacher and a teen boy, making it less of an aggravating factor because the boy was less vulnerable than if in a case of a female student pursued by an older male. Their age disparity of 10 years also made the case less serious than others in which older teachers were prosecuted, she argued.
The defence lawyer said her client had recently exited a violent relationship, which she suggested had a causative link to her poor decision-making with the boy. She's since been assessed as being a low risk of reoffending.
Since the incident came to light, she had surrendered her teaching certificate and obtained a new job, Priest told the judge. The defendant offered to pay $50 per week to the boy over the next year for him to use on counselling, but that would only be feasible if she received a non-custodial sentence and continued working, the lawyer said.
Crown prosecutor Emma Kerr opposed the defence's request for permanent name suppression and to avoid being placed on the sex offender registry. She also disagreed with the defence suggestion that the offending was less significant because of the victim's gender.
'There was a significant power imbalance evident,' she said. 'He was in his teacher's car with no one else around.'
The judge agreed.
'I think there's a significant breach of trust,' he said. 'You were his teacher.
'He and his parents were entitled to know he was safe from sexual offending when he was in school.'
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She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 19 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on
NZ Herald
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Auckland District Court Judge Peter Winter found him guilty of possessing the objectionable material discovered on his phone after a judge-alone trial in October. Both cases were transferred to the High Court after the Crown announced its intention to seek preventive detention. Hamdi's 13-year-old victim did not attend today's sentencing hearing but watched with her grandmother via an audio-video feed. 'I didn't want to do this,' she said in a written victim impact statement that was read aloud by prosecutors. 'I feel sickened and disgusted. Everything has been so, so stressful.' The victim, now 16, said Hamdi made it worse by continuing to deny the charge, forcing her to come to court. She described uncontrollable shaking and a nosebleed that wouldn't stop before giving evidence. 'I can't think about it without being sick,' she said of the offending. 'It's been years and I still cry about it. 'I regularly have flashbacks and then it feels like everything is upside down. You did this to me. You made me feel scared of the people in this world.' She said she hopes Hamdi does get the help he needs while in prison so that no other girls are victimised when he is eventually released. 'You took a sweet, innocent girl and left something else,' she said. Don't extinguish hope The crux of the Crown's case for preventive detention was that Hamdi can't be rehabilitated while continuing to deny the offending. 'He consistently states it either didn't occur or there's a conspiracy against him,' Crown prosecutor Helen Brown said. 'There's just not a realistic prospect he would engage in any rehabilitation. There has been no effort and there is highly unlikely to be any effort in the future.' Two psychological reports presented by the Crown assessed Hamdi to be a high risk of reoffending without treatment. A third assessment, provided by the defence, was inconclusive about his future risk. Brown warned the judge against taking the defendant at his word, noting that he said he's never used drugs and denied any sexual thoughts or sexual experiences while on parole. Texts from the three months before the search warrant show he was looking for methamphetamine almost every day, she said. Advertise with NZME. Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, emphasised that at 37, his client has only been to prison once before. Preventive detention, he argued, was an outsized reaction given Hamdi's limited history. Mansfield said an extended supervision order – allowing parole-like restrictions to remain in place after a finite sentence is completed – would be a less restrictive and more proper response if Hamdi continues to refuse rehabilitation. Without an end date, he said, there would be little incentive for his client to engage in such treatment. 'We shouldn't seek to extinguish that opportunity for him to do so,' Mansfield said, adding that preventive detention is a 'last resort' for those who 'show no hope' – not those facing only their second prison sentence. Had Justice Blanchard imposed a finite sentence, the judge said he would have settled on 10 and a half years' imprisonment, with a minimum term of imprisonment of five years. That sentence would have reflected an uplift for Hamdi's history and having offended again while on parole, as well as a 10% reduction for his background. He suffered PTSD and claustrophobia stemming from his youth in Iraq, which will make prison disproportionally severe for him, the judge agreed. But in the end, the judge told Hamdi, the overriding concern had to be the protection of the community. 'I accept this is a pattern of serious offending,' he said before referring to the 13-year-old victim's impact statement. 'There can be no doubt the harm caused to her is serious.' Hamdi sat quietly in the courtroom dock as the sentence was imposed. It was a stark contrast to some earlier hearings. During a brief callover hearing in September to set the sentencing date, Hamdi appeared via audio-video feed from a prison conference room, frequently interrupting Justice Mathew Downs until the judge ordered that he be put on mute. 'Mute me? Who the hell do you think you are muting me?' Hamdi yelled before the judge ordered that the feed be cut altogether, concluding the hearing without him.
