Victims of former Kadina Memorial School teacher Thomas Robert Ackland confront him in court as judge revokes bail

Brave victims have confronted a former teacher who groomed teen boys via a social media app under the guise of “bloke talk”, and preyed on their vulnerabilities.

Former Kadina Memorial School teacher Thomas Ackland. Picture: Facebook

A former Yorke Peninsula teacher who preyed on teen boys via social media will spend his first night in custody – as his brave victims told a court of the “unforgivable” trauma the “monster” has inflicted upon their lives.

The victims told the District Court that former Kadina Memorial School English teacher Thomas Robert Ackland, 31, had destroyed their trust in others, brought feelings of shame and embarrassment and trashed their self-esteem for his own “malicious intent”.

In the eleven statements read to the court on Wednesday, the victims and their families labelled Ackland as “abhorrent”, “a monster” and “malicious” and said his crimes were “heinous” and “unforgiveable”.

One victim told the court Ackland – who had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and 13 aggravated counts of communicating with the intention of making a child amenable to sexual activity – had “completely derailed” his life.

Former Yorke Peninsula schoolteacher Thomas Ackland outside court ahead of a previous hearing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“There is no amount of prison time that will ever come close to making amends for the damage this man has caused,” one victim said.

“I hope he rots in prison and then rots in hell.”

One mother told the court none of the victims’ lives would ever be normal.

The trauma and suffering will never go away for any of us,” she said.

“There will never be a time in our future that will not be impacted by this situation.”

The court heard Ackland had added the victims on social media application Snapchat and gave them strict instructions around secrecy before grooming them.

Victims spoke of how Ackland had encouraged them to share their secrets and used his position of trust to manipulate them using sexual innuendo, invasive questions and inappropriate conversations under the guise of “bloke talk”.

“I was encouraged to share things I would not have shared with others, communication began to get more intense with threats made in jest and exposing himself to me became more common,” one teen said.

The court heard the mother of one of the boys anonymously called Crime Stoppers to alert police about the abuse, while a teen who heard of the abuse on others approached a counsellor.

“The boys involved did not deserve this and I want them to know they did nothing wrong,” one mother said.

Some victims described how Ackland had inflicted long-term trauma that impacted their daily lives and required ongoing appointments with medical professionals to process their inner turmoil, including feelings of disgust, confusion and betrayal.

“His actions constitute grooming and sexual abuse. His decisions were abhorrent, unforgiveable and manipulative,” one victim said.

“I will forever live with the impact of Ackland’s abuse and the damage it has done to my self-esteem. No punishment will be able to give me back the years of my life I’ve put on hold as a result of his offending.”

Another victim told the court the extent of the impact of Ackland’s crimes “could never be fully expressed”.

Judge Paul Muscat revoked Ackland’s bail and said he would be imposing a jail term for the offending.

Ackland will return to court next month for a further pre-sentence hearing.