Sex predator teachers Stephen Stockdale-Hall and Barry Wright both win suspended sentences

TWO infamous, repeat sex offender teachers have avoided jail, within five minutes of each other, because of the extra time they served for earlier crimes.

Pedophile teacher Stephen Stockdale-Hall outside the District Court.

TWO infamous, repeat sex offender teachers have avoided jail, within five minutes of each other, because of the extra time they served for earlier crimes.

In separate District Court hearings on Wednesday, both Stephen John Stockdale-Hall and Barry Douglas Wright received suspended prison terms.

Their releases on bond were granted, in part, because each man served more than one additional year behind bars before being paroled for their previous sets of child sex offending.

Stockdale-Hall, 67, of Karoonda, was being sentenced over the last of 10 students he befriended and sexually abused while working as a private school music teacher in the 1970s and 1980s

He was jailed, in 2005, for 10 years with an eight-year non-parole period for plying his other nine victims with alcohol during school camps and abusing them while they were ill.

In the first of Wednesday’s hearings, Judge Paul Cuthbertson said Stockdale-Hall’s 10th victim suffered identical abuse but did not file charges until 2013.

By that time, Stockdale-Hall was on parole — having served an extra 1½ years behind bars due to problems finding suitable accommodation for him.

“The question is whether, at age 67 and having been out of custody for a short period of time, you should be taken back in for offending that would probably have not led to any significant increase in the 2005 sentence,” he said.

“In those circumstances, I don’t see why the totality principle should not apply merely because these charges were not made out at the time.”

He jailed Stockdale-Hall for eight months, but suspended that term on condition of a two-year, $100 bond.

“At your stage of life, I suggest you just stay in the country,” he told Stockdale-Hall.

Barry Douglas Wright outside the District Court.

Wright, 65, of Athelstone, was being sentenced for multiple counts of unlawful sex and indecent assault committed in the Adelaide Hills between January and December, 2008.

The former Adelaide High School teacher has served jail terms for offences against students in 2007 and 2009, and for possessing child exploitation material.

Then-Education Minister Grace Portolesi publicly named Wright, in 2012, after it emerged parents at those schools had not been told of his offending.

In Wednesday’s second hearing, Judge Rauf Soulio said Wright initially denied the 2008 charges, leaving him ineligible for parole and behind bars for an extra one year and 11 months.

“That was due to your maintenance of your plea of not guilty,” he said.

“The prosecution concedes I can take that into account in considering the otherwise unusual path of suspending your sentence.”

He imposed a four-year jail term with a two-year non-parole period, suspended on condition of a three-year, $5000 bond, and ordered Wright perform 360 hours of community service.

“It should be clear to you that if there’s any breach of that bond, you will be back in court before me and you will be sent to prison,” he said.

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