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Fake note-sending ex-UTS dean spared jail

Greta StonehouseAAP
Former professor Dianne Jolley is due to be sentenced over a bizarre fake letter campaign.
Camera IconFormer professor Dianne Jolley is due to be sentenced over a bizarre fake letter campaign. Credit: AAP

Why a former University of Technology Sydney dean shredded her own clothing and bizarrely sent herself fake threatening letters along with her underwear remains baffling to the judge who spared her jail time.

Dianne Jolley, 51, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years and six months to be served in the community by way of intensive corrections order.

Judge Ian Bourke was unable to arrive at a clear conclusion as to why the academic had gone "to such extreme measures" in committing her "somewhat bizarre offences," he said in the District Court on Friday.

The alarming letters began in May 2019 when the professor first reported a letter reading: "Chop our future we chop yours".

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For the next three-and-a-half months the dean of science "pretended to discover" another nine alarming notes that spoke of her being poisoned, stalked and relentlessly harassed.

"Goodbye, cya and good luck," one read, with a photograph and a red line drawn through her face.

"Racist bitch," and "China hating lesbian," read others, before her scam escalated to cutting up nearly $2000 worth of her own clothing.

Two subsequent letters separately contained her own red and green underwear she claimed were stolen.

She was found guilty by a jury in July of 10 charges of conveying information likely to make a person fear for their safety, knowing that it was misleading.

She was also found guilty on one charge of causing financial disadvantage by deception to her work after UTS spent more than $100,000 in security measures protecting her.

Her employer had installed CCTV cameras in her home and office, monitoring alarms, private security chaperoning her around the university, and hire cars driving between home and work.

One of these cameras finally caught her typing up the last note in her office, an act she claimed had been deliberate so UTS would dismiss her, saving her a three-month notice period if she resigned.

But the judge said it was simply not credible she would have thrown away her career having risen to such seniority following more than 25 years as a scientist and academic.

"At first blush" her scam seemingly arose from some sort of psychological impairment, but her continuing role as dean meant it was unlikely she had been so affected by a mental impairment, the judge said.

The "most plausible" explanation was deemed "attention-seeking," for at least some of the letters, but the judge had difficulty accepting this for all.

She had also not shown remorse given she proclaimed to have only sent herself one letter despite a recorded phone call of her admitting to being "naughty twice".

It was submitted that Jolley had suffered significant extra curial punishment by way of "literally hundreds" of online media articles, damaging her reputation and preventing future employment opportunities.

The judge acknowledged this but was "satisfied ... it was the offender's own actions that brought these adverse consequences upon her".

The crown case was she orchestrated the scheme to garner sympathy from the science faculty as she tried to close down the university's traditional Chinese medicine course.

The prosecutor said she was pushing for a performance-based reward of $40,000, on top of her $320,000 yearly salary, by having one of the most financially unviable courses in the faculty shut down.

However, the judge said there lacked evidence a bonus would be linked to the TCM course shutting down, nor did she have a history of being overly motivated by financial gain.

Jolley must undergo counselling, perform 100 hours of community service and be supervised by corrective services. Non-compliance will mean she serves the rest of her sentence in jail.

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