Sydney  - A Melbourne teacher found guilty Thursday of having sex with a 15-year-old pupil was sentenced to 150 hours of community work.

Noel McNamara of the Crime Victims Support Association decried the sentence handed to 25-year-old Nazira Rafei as too lenient.

"I think they seem to be mainly in most cases female judges who hand down these sentences and think that it is OK for female teachers to interfere with young boys," he said. "We don't know what the end result is going to be with this lad."

The judge told the court that Rafei's affair had led to her losing her job and her marriage. Neither her husband nor her family attended the trial. (dpa)