A high school teacher had a sexual relationship with a student in a fellow staff member's unit across the road from the school, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard. He also had sexual intercourse on a bean bag in the office of a fellow teacher.
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Crown prosecutor Luke Ogden read the facts for a 65-year-old man who pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault and three counts of penetrative sexual abuse of a child between 1989 and 1991.
The girl was aged between 14 and 16 years old at the time. The defendant can't be named because under Section 194k of the Evidence Act, it may identify the victim.
Mr Ogden said that the teacher was the girl's netball coach and his touches made her feel special.
One day the student went to the teacher and said she wanted to speak to him privately.
She told him she had feelings for him and he reciprocated.
Mr Ogden said that soon after they began a sexual relationship which included oral and vaginal intercourse and kissing.
He said that sexual intercourse would occur several times a week including when he drove her home from training and at times at his home when his wife was not present.
On the girl's sixteenth birthday he gave her a book with graphic descriptions of sexual activity and a signed handwritten note saying lots of love. He told her he would leave his wife when she turned 18-years-old.
Mr Ogden said the complainant was infatuated with the accused and became a total mess when he took long service leave and took up alternate employment.
He said that about that time the girl's parents complained to the school principal.
He was transferred to a school in a different part of the state where he rose to the position of principal.
The complainant went to police in December 2021. In an interview, the man described the girl as persistent and that she just wore him down.
He told police he was unable to remember having sex in the teacher's unit but agreed to a number of other occasions. He said his relationship with his wife was not good and that he was lonely.
In a victim impact statement which Mr Ogden read to the court, the woman said that the sexual abuse had caused her to go from a top student with a bright future to a person with drug problems and occasional homelessness. She became pregnant in her teens.
"I lost confidence and self worth," she said.
"My view and understanding of love was distorted."
She said it had taken her 20 years to turn her life around.
"I feel completely let down by the school, my parents went to the school but he was just quietly moved on," she said.
"He moved up to a position of principal while my life spiralled out of control.
Mr Ogden said it was an aggravation of the crime that the complainant was under the care and supervision of the teacher.
Defence counsel Fran McCracken said he recognised that the relationship was the biggest mistake of his life.
She said that differences between the Crown facts and the man's statement to police was because he was in a state of shock as a respected member of the community and coming face to face with the biggest mistake of his life.
She said he took long service leave after speaking to the principal who likely did not want to know details.
"While the transfer was unfortunate it was not unexpected because the way the community deals with such cases was vastly different then that it is now," Ms McCracken said.
Justice Robert Pearce remarked that even in 1990 a relationship between and teacher and a student must have been condemned.
Ms McCracken said he was weak and continued offending after the discussion with the principal.
"He accepts the offending had a profound effect on the complainant and he is deeply remorseful," she said.
She said that after a geographical move he had worked hard in the community.
She said that the man was of good character and had no subsequent offences in the past thirty years.
"There is evidence to show that this was an isolated incident within an 18 month period," she said.
Justice Robert Pearce told the man a sentence of imprisonment was inevitable.
He remanded the man in custody to reappear for sentence on Tuesday, February 21 for sentence.
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Nick Clark
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
I am the Supreme and Magistrates Court reporter for the Examiner for the past 18 months. My journalism career has clicked over 30 years and encompasses four different spells at Tasmanian newspapers.
