A female teacher from Sydney has pleaded guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old male student and sexually touching another teenager last year. Tayla Brailey, 32, appeared in Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday, where she answered “Guilty, your Honour” to each charge as they were read aloud.
The charges include having sex with a 17-year-old student and sexually touching a 16-year-old student in 2024. Brailey also pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material and using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to herself.
Several other charges were withdrawn during the hearing. The case has faced months of delays since Brailey’s arrest in August 2024, with the matter adjourned eight times. Lawyers had previously indicated negotiations were underway, prompting magistrate Peter Thompson to question the repeated delays during a mention last September, as per The Australian.
“We were resolving facts last time… (I) was told that was going to be enough, why am I adjourning again?” Thompson said at the time. During Wednesday’s proceedings, Brailey’s lawyer, Abbas Soukie, informed the court that some of the agreed facts in the case remain in dispute.
Brailey has been committed for sentencing in the Campbelltown District Court, with a date to be set on March 26. She remains on bail pending that hearing. The teacher’s guilty pleas bring some resolution to a case that has drawn significant attention due to the nature of the offences involving students in her care. The age of consent in New South Wales is 16, but teachers are prohibited from engaging in sexual relationships with students due to their position of authority and responsibility.
Brailey faces potential penalties, including imprisonment, when she returns to court for sentencing. The charges related to child abuse material carry significant penalties under Commonwealth law. The court did not release further details about the circumstances of the offences, with some factual matters still to be resolved between legal teams before sentencing proceeds.
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