David Maurice Withyman, 23, served almost a year in gaol after he was convicted for carrying a loaded firearm with the intent to commit an offence, following a series of assaults.

But he claims the crime spree lay in the termination of his 2003 relationship with Anna Lucinda Blackburn, 28, who was a teacher at Carenne Public School, where he had been sent because of behavioural problems.

Judge Ray McLoughlin ruled in the District Court last week that there was prima facie evidence the school and teacher had breached their duty of care to Mr Withyman.

Ms Blackburn, meanwhile, will front the NSW Industrial Relations Commission today with an unfair dismissal claim against the NSW Department of Education.

The court heard evidence that Mr Withyman was 17 when he started spending time alone with Ms Blackburn in her classroom. They developed a relationship that became sexual after she separated from her husband.

He told a psychologist, Anna Robilliard, he thought it was “cool” having a sexual relationship with a teacher and described Ms Blackburn as “nice”, “loving” and “gentle”, in a report that was tendered to the court.

After an intense eight-month relationship, Ms Blackburn ended the affair in October 2003 and Mr Withyman allegedly became suicidal. He attacked Ms Blackburn five days later and was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

She took out an apprehended violence order, but he breached it and assaulted her on several other occasions, culminating in his firearm offence in October last year.

Mr Withyman will now sue Ms Blackburn and the state of NSW, claiming that he suffers from depression, post traumatic stress, drug dependence and suicidal and homicidal thoughts, and was ultimately incarcerated as a result of the doomed sexual relationship.

He claims that the school was aware an inappropriate level of intimacy was developing between Ms Blackburn and him, and knew that he had borderline intelligence and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The school principal had also warned Ms Blackburn against her private classroom meetings with Mr Withyman.

Judge McLoughlin said on Wednesday that Mr Withyman’s criminal behaviour “prima facie, may well be caused by [the effect of] the relationship breakdown on the plaintiff’s psyche”.

Yesterday Ms Blackburn said only Mr Withyman’s version of events had been heard in court, but she did not want to comment until she had her day in the stand.

“It’s been a fairly harrowing experience for all of us,” she said.

- SYDNEY MORNING HERALD