Paedophile and former Christian Brothers College teacher Stephen John Hamra to challenge toughened sex abuse laws

A FORMER Adelaide private school teacher found guilty of the prolonged abuse of a boy will challenge amended legislation that was passed to ensure paedophiles were sentenced for all their heinous crimes.

Stephen John Hamra outside the District Court in 2016. Picture: Greg Higgs

• SA Government amends sex abuse laws after High Court bombshell
• Disgraced teacher Marco Chiro’s sentence slashed after decision
• Stephen Hamra’s victim tells how abuse destroyed his childhood

A FORMER Adelaide teacher found guilty of the prolonged abuse of a boy is set to challenge amended legislation that was passed to ensure paedophiles were sentenced for all their heinous crimes.

Ex-Christian Brothers College teacher Stephen John Hamra, 61, appeared in the District Court on Thursday, ahead of sentencing later this month.

Last year, Judge Paul Rice found him guilty of the persistent sexual exploitation of a teenage boy between 1977 and 1986. The victim was not a student at CBC.

Mark Griffin QC, for Hamra, told the court that his client would mount a “constitutional challenge” in relation to amendments made to the Criminal Law Consolidation Act last year in the wake of a bombshell High Court judgment in the Marco Chiro case.

He described the challenge as “untravelled territory” for Judge Rice.

Chiro, a former Norwood Morialta High School teacher, was originally sentenced to 10 years in jail with a non-parole period of six years for the persistent sexual exploitation of a student.

But he successfully appealed to the High Court.

Counsel for Chiro argued that he should not have been sentenced on allegations of sexual intercourse, but only that he had kissed the young girl.

Ex-Adelaide schoolteacher Marco Chiro outside the District Court during his trial into the persistent exploitation of a student. Picture: Greg Higgs

The kissing was among a range of sexual conduct included in the charge of persistent sexual exploitation of a child.

In the judgment, the High Court stated that since District Court trial Judge Geraldine Davison did not ascertain which of the alleged acts of sexual exploitation the jury agreed were proven, Chiro “should have been sentenced on the view of the facts most favourable’’ to him.

It found he should have been sentenced for his least serious offences — two counts of kissing.

He was re-sentenced in the District Court and became eligible for parole last November.

In the wake of the High Court decision, the State Government introduced amendments to ensure convicted paedophiles were sentenced for “the general nature or character of the unlawful sexual acts’’ included in the charge.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended the changes before the Chiro judgment.

On Thursday, Mr Griffin said Hamra was tried and found guilty before the amendments were put in place, which would throw into question whether he should be sentenced under the changes.

He will mount his challenge next week.

Mr Griffin also advised the court that Hamra would be appealing Judge Rice’s guilty finding in the Court of Criminal Appeal later this month.

He asked whether the court should proceed with further submissions and sentence before the appeal because if it was successful, imposing a punishment would be “redundant”.

But Judge Rice said there had been a directive from the Chief Judge that the court was not to delay sentencing for an appeal to take place.

Judge Rice said he would sentence Hamra before the appeal on February 20.

Last May, Hamra’s victim told Judge Rice how his tormentor had ruined his life, saying before the abuse he was “a happy, fun-loving child”.

“Afterwards I was angry, depressed and suicidal. I wonder where my life would have been without this abuse,” he said in his victim impact statement.