Queensland teachers go from classroom to courtroom with shocking crimes
Occupying a special position of trust meet the teachers who broke ranks to commit criminal acts ranging from sexual exploits with students, to stalking and filming children.
Redlands Coast
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A bevy of teachers have fronted court this year to answer for crimes which shocked communities and marred the trust held in them.
We take a look at some of Queensland’s more notorious teacher offenders.
EZRA BARTON BURTT
JAILED FOR HAVING SEX WITH 15-YEAR-OLD STUDENT
A sports coach at a private college north of Brisbane who had sex with a 15-year-old student on school grounds will be eligible for parole in September 2022 after he was jailed for six years.
Former Bundaberg man Ezra Barton Burtt, 38 in September, faced Brisbane District Court on September 18 where he pleaded guilty to 28 charges including indecent treatment of a child under 16, maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child, making child exploitation material, unlawful carnal knowledge of a child and supplying liquor to a minor.
He also pleaded guilty to stalking the student when she broke off the four-month relationship.
The court heard Burtt, who once ran for the ALP in the seat of Maryborough in the 2012 state election, was engaged to a woman in the United States when he asked the teenager’s mother if he could spend more time with the girl.
Despite the mother telling him that it was highly inappropriate, Burtt began seeing the teenager and continued a sexual relationship, on and off the school grounds, for months.
The relationship was exposed in November 2018 when a student saw the pair together and alerted the college.
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LEIGH HERMAN MOIR
MAINTAINS UNLAWFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH A CHILD
A teacher from a private college south of Brisbane was jailed for six years last year after pleading guilty to a range of child sex offences including making exploitative videos and maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
Leigh Herman Moir, 28 on December 21 last year, was sacked from his school and sentenced after being found guilty of 55 charges including two for making and possessing child exploitation material.
Beenleigh District Court heard Moir had used a student to take his mobile phone into the girls’ change rooms at the school to film.
He committed the crimes at the school, at his home and at the church he attended at Birkdale over a seven-year period from when he was aged 19 and the victims were as young as six.
The court heard he had accessed child pornography and had inappropriately touched young girls.
Judge Craig Chowdhury sentenced Moir to six years’ jail for maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child and two years’ jail for 48 charges of indecent treatment of children, some under the age of 12. The sentences were to be served concurrently.
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PETER MATTHEW MALONE
PREYS ON CHILDREN 8 TO 14 YEARS OLD
A former Queensland schoolteacher who slid his hands under students’ clothing in class has been jailed.
Peter Matthew Malone’s sexualised touching often occurred after the girls had been called to his desk under the pretext of checking their school work, his sentencing hearing has heard.
Crown prosecutor Russell Hood says that in a classroom full of children, Malone then slid his hands under the victim’s clothing.
The youngest girl was aged eight. The oldest was 14.
Malone pleaded guilty on Thursday to 13 counts of indecent treatment of children under his care and two counts of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child between 1992 and 2002.
One victim, who cannot be identified, told the Brisbane District Court Malone’s abuse destroyed her relationship with her father.
The woman said Malone’s actions caused her to flee her family home in fear and ultimately resulted in drug addiction.
Judge Julie Dick SC said Malone’s offending was a gross breach of trust.
“These types of offences have serious effects on complainants … (and) they have this ripple effect that goes out,” she said.
Malone was sentenced to four years in prison, suspended after 12 months.
CHRISTOPHER JAMES WHITE
PLEADS GUILTY TO MULTIPLE COUNTS OF DISTRIBUTING CHILD EXPLOITATION MATERIAL
A teacher who pretended to be a 14-year-old girl to catfish older men into sending back dirty messages did so for his own sexual enjoyment, a court heard earlier this month.
Christopher James White, 41, was the head of the junior school at Bribie Island State High School when he assumed the online identity of a teenage girl named Amber on Facebook and began sending nude and scantily clad photos of his alter ego to men.
The father of two young girls told the men about Amber’s fantasies of being “raped in a jacuzzi” and losing her virginity to a teacher at school, the court heard.
The Bongaree teacher, who has since stood down, pleaded guilty to five charges of distributing child exploitation material and one charge of possessing child exploitation material in Brisbane District Court on October 1.
In sentencing, Judge Chowdhury agreed with the defence that White’s case was quite different to other child pornography cases.
“You seemed to have got some gratification from pretending to be a 14-year-old girl wanting to be sexually abused by other men. It is really concerning,” he said.
Judge Chowdhury sentenced White to 18 months’ jail, to be wholly suspended for two years.
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NATHAN NEIL RAMM
PLEADS GUILTY TO POSSESSING CHILD PORN
A respected teacher who pleaded guilty to being in possession of hundreds of files of heinous child exploitation (CEM) was given an 18-month jail sentence, wholly suspended over three years along with 18 months’ probation conditional he attend psychiatric treatment as directed earlier this year.
Nathan Neil Ramm, 39, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on July 20 to one count each of distributing and possessing CEM.
The court heard Ramm, who was a member of many community groups, including a local State Emergency Service branch and an Australian rules football club, was a highly respected member of The Cathedral College staff and had risen through the ranks to become Academic Dean of IT at the school where he worked from 2003-2019.
Crown prosecutor Samantha O’Rourke said Ramm declared CEM on his computer when police searched his house, telling them he obtained it through peer-to-peer networks.
Ms O’Rourke said 491 files matched Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation baseline.
Interpol’s system replaced Queensland’s former system which used the COPINE scale of categorising images and videos.
JAMES TREASURE
FILMS UP SUNSHINE COAST CHILDREN’S SKIRTS, POSSESSES THOUSANDS OF HORRIFIC CHILD-PORN IMAGES
A Victorian schoolteacher who secretly filmed up children’s skirts at a Sunshine Coast beach and was found in possession of 3900 images of horrific child-porn, including a video that featured a baby wearing a nappy, was jailed for four years last September.
The then 40-year-old man also made sex tapes with a blow-up doll wearing a uniform from the school he taught at and stuck photographs of children he taught to the face of the doll.
James Treasure came to the attention of police after parents reported his suspicious behaviour at Noosa Main Beach in July 2018, where they saw him following two sisters aged 10 and 12 while holding his watch up towards them.
Earlier in 2019 he pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to two charges of making child exploitation material and one count of possessing the material and was on September 23, 2019 sentenced to four years’ jail for making the child porn and three years’ behind bars for possessing the material.
At the time he had served 444 days in custody with a November 2019 parole date.
When police raided the 40-year-old’s hotel room, they found 13 videos taken up children’s skirts at tourist hot spots at the Sunshine Coast including on Hastings St, a Big W store at Noosa Village and others filmed at the popular family spot — Eumundi Markets.
The court heard he had filmed up kids skirts from a camera he had fixed in the tongue of his shoe.
When police seized Treasure’s computers they found 3900 images of horrific child porn, the court heard.
Detectives also found three watches with spy cameras and a range of electronic equipment during the search.