By Sarah McPhee
Sitting before rows of past Vaucluse Public School students, former teacher Michael Anthony Lunn traded a classroom for a courtroom as he was convicted of years of predatory child sexual abuse.
The judgment on Wednesday afternoon was decades in the making for the group of students, now adults, who a judge found had given honest and reliable evidence about what happened to them when they were aged between four and eight.
Michael Anthony Lunn, also known as Tony Lunn, arrives at court on Wednesday for the judge’s verdicts.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
“After 40 years, today brings a measure of accountability,” one victim said.
He said being “child of the week” in Lunn’s eastern suburbs classroom “had a dark side to it”, and “we may never know the hidden cost of his abuse”.
Lunn, 71, faced a judge-alone trial in the NSW District Court, accused of more than a dozen charges relating to eight boys and girls in the 1980s.
The Crown alleged Lunn used his popularity in the school community to prey on children during classroom activities as they sat on his lap or stood near him during show-and-tell and while marking their work.
But Lunn’s lawyers argued he was a victim of “rumours and scuttlebutt” and contaminated student recollections.
Michael Anthony Lunn (right) has been found guilty of abusing multiple students.
The court heard Lunn had faced trial in the 1980s over similar allegations, which ended in not guilty and directed verdicts, one hung jury, and no further proceedings.
Complainants from those previous cases were among at least 30 people, including present victims, their partners and police, who packed the courtroom for Judge Paul McGuire’s verdicts. They embraced and cried as the judge found Lunn guilty of three counts of sexual assault of a child and 10 counts of indecent assault.
“We especially acknowledge those who came forward in 1985,” the victim said. “Today’s judgment is a vindication of their courage.”
The judge described the offending as deliberate and unlawful with unequivocal sexual connotations.
‘Unconvincing and unbelievable’ account to police
In a police interview after his arrest in 2022, Lunn said he had been a hands-on teacher, but it “wasn’t sexual” and there were “no sneaky little things”.
Lunn said there may have been times when he stuck his hand in a child’s pants, claiming it was to tuck in their uniforms.
He said children were “attracted” to him, but denied he was sexually attracted to children.
Lunn’s barrister Pierre de Dassel had submitted his client should be accepted as “entirely truthful”.
But the judge found Lunn’s account to be “unsatisfactory and unconvincing”.
“I generally find his account to be unbelievable,” McGuire said.
Complainants were ‘witnesses of truth’
Crown prosecutor Sara Gul had argued Lunn cultivated and projected an almost cult-like image in the school, but alleged it was a “facade of opportunistic, deliberate and serial sexual abuse”.
McGuire noted one complainant recalled Lunn as a “playful teacher” who made everybody laugh.
“He, somewhat prophetically, described the accused as being ‘like the Pied Piper’,” the judge said.
The allegations against Lunn included acts of digital penetration, fondling of genitals, kissing and on one occasion putting his penis against a boy’s mouth.
One man said Lunn repeatedly tried to push his pyjama pants down under a sleeping bag at a school camp.
One woman said she now considered Lunn’s touching as more insidious than a smack on her bottom.
“If the accused had engaged in some legitimate form of corporal punishment, there was no need for his hand to go under her school dress,” the judge said.
McGuire variously described the complainants as intelligent, honest, frank and witnesses of truth.
They gave evidence about being scared, confused, embarrassed and ashamed at the time, not wanting to upset their parents, or of having nobody to tell.
The judge did not accept they had fabricated their evidence due to a financial motive or collective vengeance against Lunn.
One complainant was candid about his desire to receive victims’ compensation, but said he came forward “to right a wrong because of what had occurred to him” and “to put a monster behind bars”.
Another complainant disagreed that she was financially motivated and said: “I am here for me.”
A number of the complainants came forward after Lunn’s 2022 arrest following a police media release and coverage by the Herald.
Lunn was convicted of the 13 offences which carry maximum penalties of up to 10 years behind bars.
Prosecutors applied for Lunn to be detained, which was unopposed by the defence. He was handcuffed and taken into custody, and is due to face a sentence hearing on June 20.
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