STD, lesbian calls earn mother work penalty

A woman who admitted making malicious phone calls alleging a girl was in a lesbian relationship and had an STD will not have her identity revealed, but will have 300 hours community work. Photo / Thinsktock

Final name suppression was ordered yesterday for a Queenstown woman who admitted making malicious phone calls in which she falsely alleged a child was in a lesbian relationship and had a sexually transmitted disease.

In the Queenstown District Court, Judge Raoul Neave sentenced the 53-year-old to 300 hours' community work, with leave to convert the hours to training, and two years' intensive supervision with special conditions of assessment, counselling and treatment, with a referral to mental health specialists.

She was also ordered to pay $500 emotional harm reparation.

In ordering final suppression, Judge Neave said the woman had done her "level best" to wreck someone else's daughter's life but "I fail to see why that incident should come back to haunt your own daughter as well".

In May, the defendant had applied to St Hilda's Collegiate School and Columba College in Dunedin for her daughter to be accepted as a pupil next year.

The mother was aware another Queenstown teenager was applying for both schools and in an effort to have her daughter accepted ahead of the other pupil, she made the fictitious calls.

In October, the woman admitted using a telecommunication device to knowingly give a fictitious message - namely that she was a sexual health worker and the other girl had a sexually transmitted disease, was in a lesbian relationship and wanted her to make an appointment with the clinic; and in a separate charge, that the child needed support with treatment.

In the first call, to St Hilda's about a boarder needing support with treatment, the woman then said she'd made a mistake and was calling in relation to a prospective pupil, before naming the girl.

In a second call, to Columba, she said the prospective pupil had a sexually transmitted disease and that she was in a lesbian relationship with another girl.

Defence counsel Phena Byrne read an apology the defendant had sent to the schools and the complainant.

The victim attended yesterday's sentencing and was visibly upset throughout, at times sobbing.

Judge Neave said the defendant's behaviour was scandalous.

"It was a deliberate attempt to [get your daughter preferential entry].

"The effects ... have been utterly devastating for the complainant. The effects on her will be long-lasting. I can only pray they won't be permanent."

He said the woman suffered from "very serious mental health issues".

The judge gave the woman credit for her guilty plea and for doing "what little you can" to acknowledge the wrongdoing and apologise.