Anthony ‘Tony’ Rex Virgo sentenced for grooming three students

Freshly qualified, a young teacher quickly betrayed the trust put into him by grooming three young girls and having sex with them. He’ll now spend years behind bars.

A predator teacher used three different schools as hunting grounds to groom young female students for his own sexual gratification within two years of starting in the role.

Former teacher Anthony Rex Virgo, who was aged between 23 and 25 at the time, acted “flirty and suggestive”, eventually convincing three female students between 1986 and 1988 to have a sexual relationship with him.

The three girls were aged between 15 and 16.

Virgo, 59, will now spend at least the next seven years and two months behind bars, after being sentenced for the three retrospective counts of persistent sexual exploitation.

Judge Ian Press told the Adelaide District Court Virgo used three schools he taught at as a “selfish” avenue to fulfil for his “own sexual gratification”.

Anthony Virgo, a former Hamilton Secondary teacher, pleaded guilty to the three counts of persistent sexual exploitation of a child in March. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

He said Virgo exploited his two of victims’ “vulnerability” and the “imbalance of power” between them, leaving one of them to describe their interaction as leaving her “hollow and empty”.

“You treated the schools at which you taught at as an opportunity to satisfy your emotional and sexual needs,” he said.

“Your offending commenced when you had only just turned 23 (and) it is perhaps not difficult to understand that your immaturity resulted in a degree of selfishness on your part.”

He said Virgo put his own satisfaction “above all else”.

At one point, Virgo introduced one of the girls to his friends as his “girlfriend”, but lied about her age, which was 15.

He was 25 and she was his third victim.

The young woman told the court she believed the relationship had ended as he had met another woman outside of the confines of school.

Virgo was quick to move on from his teen victim, ghosting her and leaving her in his wake.

Judge Press considered that behaviour in handing down his sentence.

“You simply stopped contacting her,” he said.

“This somewhat callous approach to the emotions of a 15-year-old girl exemplifies your self-absorption during that period,” he said.

When interviewed by police after one of his victims reported the offending years later, Virgo himself told them about his first victim – a then 15-year-old girl who he may have had sex with in sand dunes at Henley Beach.

A photo from the dunes at Henley Beach.

The court heard Virgo, after 1988, had gone on to be an exemplary teacher, eventually founding the science and space program at Hamilton High School where he worked for two decades.

He was also a CFS volunteer for 10 years, and at stages of his career worked as a coach and mentor for school students.

Virgo, now of McLaren Flat, taught at Northfield, Henley Beach, Adelaide, Fremont and Windsor Gardens schools before getting permanency at Wudinna in 1990.

He pleaded guilty to the charges in March.

His victims lashed him in victim impact statements heard in court in July as his bail was revoked and he was thrown in jail.

Judge Press delivered Virgo a head sentence of 11 years and 10 months’ prison, with a non-parole period of seven years and two months.

Virgo’s period of non-parole – typically set higher for “serious repeat offenders” – was reduced, with Judge Press satisfied it was unlikely he would reoffend.