Ex Geelong High teacher Luke Joseph Martin admits to multiple sexual offences against teen girl

A former teacher at Geelong High School sexually abused a student on multiple occasions, including in his own bed when his wife was away and their children were at home.

Luke Joseph Martin pleads guilty to sexual offences against a 16-year-old girl. Picture: Supplied

A former teacher at Geelong High School sexually abused a student on multiple occasions, including in his own bed when his wife was away and their children were at home.

Luke Joseph Martin, 41, also exchanged more than 40,000 messages with the girl, most of them of a sexual nature.

Martin pleaded guilty in the Geelong County Court on Tuesday to seven counts of sexually penetrating a child aged 16 or 17 as well as charges of being involved in the production of child abuse material and viewing child abuse material.

A statement of court facts revealed Martin, from Corryong, had been working as an English teacher at Geelong High School and started to groom the victim when she was 16.

Crown prosecutor Darryl Brown said the pair started to communicate via a school system and eventually exchanged mobile numbers.

Mr Brown said the pair had exchanged about 44,000 messages.

The court was told 5408 of the messages were sexually explicit videos and voice recordings.

Afraid that his wife would catch on, Martin asked the victim to create a cloud account on OneDrive. The court was told Martin accessed this hard drive, which contained sexual images, regularly.

On once occasion he arranged to meet the victim at a secret location where he touched her buttocks and said he enjoyed her behind.

Geelong High School

Mr Brown said Martin also kissed the victim for the first time on that occasion and sent her a text message a month later saying how much he enjoyed it.

Martin met the victim several times and performed oral sex.

The court was told Martin kissed the victims on several occasions, and also manipulated the victim to sexually touch him about 10 times.

In their last encounter, the victim went to Martin’s house while his wife was away where they laid in bed and performed sexual acts.

The victim left the home, calling an Uber about 4am, because Martin’s children were unsettled.

The court was told the offending came to light when the victim informed a sibling of the abuse she suffered from Martin.

In a statement to the court, the victim said at times she felt like dying and was not deserving of love. She said was exhausted and felt suffocated.

“This will follow me for the rest of my life”, she said.

Martin’s lawyer Nadia Deltondo said her client was ashamed of what he had done and acknowledged there was no excuse for his actions.

“His job was a wonderful opportunity to help students find their potential, but his lack of judgement has done the exact opposite,” Ms Deltondo said.

Martin will be sentenced next Thursday.

Originally published as Ex Geelong High teacher Luke Joseph Martin admits to multiple sexual offences against teen girl