Abstract A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying τ lepton, with zero or one additional light lepton ( e / μ ), has been performed using 4.7 fb −1 of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 7\mbox{~TeV}$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and a 95 % confidence level visible cross-section upper limit for new phenomena is set. In the framework of gauge-mediated SUSY-breaking models, lower limits on the mass scale Λ are set at 54 TeV in the regions where the $\tilde{\tau}_{1}$ is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (tan β >20). These limits provide the most stringent tests to date of GMSB models in a large part of the parameter space considered.