Far North Queensland parents have told a District Court judge of their distress and guilt after a former teacher was jailed for nearly 100 offences involving children at the primary school where he worked.
The former Cairns state school teacher pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court on Monday to 92 charges relating to sexual abuse and the creation and possession of child exploitation material.
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They included 58 counts of indecent treatment, 26 counts involving a child in the making of child exploitation material, five counts of repeated sexual conduct, and three further offences relating to child exploitation material.
The court heard the 37-year-old’s offending, which occurred over a two-year period, involved 26 children aged five to nine, most of whom attended the school where the man was employed.
The ABC has chosen not to name the man or school to protect the identity of the victims.
During sentencing Judge Benedict Power KC described the offending as “very serious”, “calculated” with a “degree of sophistication”.
“You were utilising your position and, it seems, some degree of charisma that the children were trusting of you to this great extent,” he said.
“It must have been at least somewhere in your mind that by undertaking this career you would be putting yourself in a position where you would have that trust of very young children and you abused that trust.”
The court heard the children were between five and nine years old at the time the offending occurred. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)
Man accessed child porn prior to teaching
The court heard the man had already accessed child pornography by the time he began studying to become a teacher and that his offending began four months after he completed his training and was working unsupervised.
Initially the offending involved filming up the skirts of children on school grounds but he later invited girls into a storeroom where further offending occurred, the court heard.
This included filming himself indecently touching the children and making suggestive comments.
The man pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court on Monday. (ABC News: Mark Rigby)
Police first arrested the man in late 2023 and charged him with indecent treatment and possessing child exploitation material.
He was later charged with more offences after investigators uncovered material and thousands of child pornography images and videos on his electronic devices.
Parents describe harrowing impacts
The public gallery was filled with parents, relatives and support people during the sentencing hearing.
Victim impact statements from more than a dozen parents were submitted to the court.
Several were read out by parents who described the “profound” and “lasting” impacts on their children, themselves, and their families.
The parents described losing trust in the education system and in adults responsible for their children’s care.
One mother said her daughter’s “innocence and trust were taken from her”.
She described her child’s growing distress around attending school without initially understanding the cause.
One parent told the court the light went out of her child’s eyes as a result of the offending. (Unsplash: MChe Lee/CC licence)
“They were cries of help from my little girl,” the woman said.
“No parent should have to watch the light dim in their child’s eyes because of the actions of someone who chose to hurt them,” another mother said.
Many parents described the guilt of unknowingly sending their children into an unsafe environment each day.
“Struggling to focus, sleepless nights spent replaying everything … to see if we missed any indications that could have helped prevent what happened,” one parent wrote.
“We ask ourselves whether anyone can be truly trusted.”
The man was sentenced to 17 years in prison, with two years already served taken into account.
He will be eligible for parole in 2030.
