Lam was arrested in September 2021 and had been facing 15 charges of indecent assault,allegedly committed against four teenagers in the late 1970s when she was a teacher at a boys’ school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The now 70-year-old has always denied the charges and was never convicted of any offence.
Crucially,Lam was charged under the laws which were in place in 1978 when she allegedly abused the boys,who were aged 13 to 16.
NSW’s top criminal court on Monday declared that the indictment against Lam was void because the historical laws were only directed to “to the crime of sodomy upon a male and other male homosexual conduct”.
Justices Anthony Meagher,Richard Weinstein and Peter Garling agreed that the law “does not apply and has never applied to conduct committed by a female upon a male”.
The complainants toldThe Sydney Morning Heraldthey were devastated.
“They placed their unwavering trust in their school and its teachers,who undoubtedly owed them a solemn duty to keep them safe,” the complainants’ lawyer,Adair Donaldson,said on their behalf.