Court of Appeal almost doubles sentence handed to pedophile Christopher Stain and calls for better education for judges

The soft sentence handed to a pedophile Bible studies teacher shows judges must be educated about the long-term effects of sex crimes on children, SA’s top court has ruled.

An inadequate sentence handed to a pedophile teacher who abused a 13-year-old student for more than a year shows a need for judges to be better educated about the long-term effects of abuse on child victims, South Australia’s top court has ruled.

Christopher Wright Stain, 67, was initially sentenced to three years, 10 months and 25 days in prison with a non-parole period of 14 months for maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child in the 1980s.

The Court of Appeal on Thursday unanimously agreed to increase Stain’s head sentence to six years and more than double his non-parole period to 3½ years.

It said the original sentence was so low it risked jeopardising public confidence in the courts and that the new non-parole period was “relatively merciful” in all the circumstances.

Court of Appeal president Trish Kelly, Appeal Justice Chris Bleby and Auxiliary Appeal Justice Malcolm Blue were critical of District Court Judge Joana Fuller’s sentencing remarks.

Judge Fuller took into account Stain’s claims he had been “blinded by his love” and his behaviour towards his victim had been dictated by “misguided compassion”.

Christopher Stain leaves the District Court. Picture: Emma Brasier

The victim reported the abuse to police in 2020 while Stain himself had told several people, including a pastor and counsellor, about his crimes.

Stain went on to work at numerous other schools around South Australia.

Judge Fuller said the length of time before the victim made a complaint and Stain’s guilt and efforts to rehabilitate were factors against a longer sentence.

“In doing so, the judge has not taken into account that it is notorious that, in cases of sexual offending against young children, victims are often reluctant to come forward and make any complaint for many years after the offending,” the court said in its published judgment.

“In the words of (former Chief Justice John Doyle), to place excessive weight on the passage of time and the lack of criminal history in cases of this kind is to allow offenders to escape due punishment.

“It was not appropriate to attribute significant weight to delay and rehabilitation in circumstances where the delay in reporting was due to the very nature of the offending.

“The sentencing process in this matter has miscarried, resulting in a manifestly inadequate sentence.”

The court concluded there was a need for “continuing legal education of judges to ensure that they properly understand and appreciate the dynamics involved in the sexual predation of children, the profound harm caused to those children and the need to impose adequate punishment for these crimes”.

Pedophile Christopher Stain in 2011 when he was working as a relief teacher.

Stain was working as a teacher at a regional school when he met the victim in the early 1980s, when she was only 12.

He started a Bible study group at his home on Friday nights and invited the victim.

Over more than a year, Stain groomed the victim and started a sexual relationship, which only ended when the girl wrote him a letter begging him to leave her alone.

“The context of the relationship, and the complainant’s position as a child, made the

conduct of the respondent predatory in nature from the outset,” the court said.

“The fact that (Stain) believed that he was in love with the complainant cannot, and does not, detract from this.”

Stain will be eligible for parole in late 2024 when he will be 70.