Former Yorke Peninsula student sues SA Government for $500,000 over abuse by ex-teacher Thomas Robert Ackland

A school in the Yorke Peninsula has been accused of failing to act on warnings that one of its teachers was grooming students online going on to abuse a student for years.

 

A Yorke Peninsula school knew one of its teachers was grooming students for sex seven months before he abused a boy but neither stopped nor fired him, court documents allege.

One of Thomas Robert Ackland’s 11 sex crime victims has filed a $500,000 District Court lawsuit against the state government, accusing it of negligence and vicarious liability.

The now-adult student, who cannot be named, alleges Kadina Memorial School was told, in April or May 2018, that Ackland was using social media to have sexually explicit chats with students.

He alleges the school took no action – leaving him vulnerable to being contacted by Ackland in December of that year, and then being abused throughout 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Thomas Ackland outside court in October 2023. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

On Thursday, the former student’s lawyer, Alice Taylor, said her client’s case was “a dire warning” to the Education Department “to ensure all reports are investigated fully”.

“Parents send their children to school with the upmost belief that they will be safe,” she said.

“Unfortunately, Kadina Memorial School was instead the ultimate hunting ground for Ackland and his predatory behaviour.”

In December 2023, Ackland, now 32, was jailed for 14 years after pleading guilty to 14 child sex abuse charges.

He groomed his victims via Snapchat under the guise of “bloke talk”, insisting their inappropriate and innuendo-laden conversations be kept secret.

Ackland’s victims labelled him an “abhorrent, malicious monster” and, while he apologised for any harm he “may have caused” them, he insisted he was not a pedophile.

Ackland is serving a 14-year prison term. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

In his statement of claim, the former student says Ackland “invited” him to “secretly add him on Snapchat” in December 2018, then sent him naked photographs.

He alleges Ackland subsequently demanded naked images from him, exposed himself in class and pressured him to get his driver’s licence so they could have sex at his home.

“In April or May 2018, (the government) became aware Ackland was communicating with students during and outside of school hours via social media platforms,” he alleges.

“It counselled Ackland in relation to the inappropriate communication he had and continued to have … despite (that), it continued to employ him.

“It was fully aware of Ackland’s propensity to send inappropriate messages to students at the school and failed to take any or any adequate steps to prevent such messages from continuing.

“The abuse committed by Mr Ackland, post the school’s knowledge of the inappropriate messages, was foreseeable and preventable.”

The former student asks the court to award him exemplary damages, saying the government “failed to protect” him “from sexual abuse”.

The court has yet to release the government’s defence papers.

The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.