‘It makes you vomit in your mouth’: Former Sydney teacher jailed for at least 12 years
A FORMER teacher will spend at least 12 years in prison for the repeated sexual abuse of 15 students at a primary school in Sydney’s southwest. Crying parents hugged their teary sons outside court.
NSW
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- Assistant principal admits to sexually abusing students
- Victim: ‘You’re supposed to be safe at school’
ONE of 15 students sexually abused by a Sydney teacher says he felt a power shift while staring down the “disgusting peadophile” as he was sentenced to at least 12 years in jail.
Head bowed and shaking uncontrollably in the dock, Shane Andrew Matthews made no eye contact with any of the teenage boys he wrote apology letters to from prison.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to 33 counts of child sexual abuse which occurred mostly when he taught at Wattle Grove Public School between 2012 and 2015.
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His victims, aged between 10 and 12, were groomed with fake classroom money and given prizes on ‘superhero’ days when Matthews would dress up as self-styled character “Captain Obvious”.
It’s been two years since one boy, who cannot be named, first broke his silence and sparked the police investigation which allowed more than a dozen of his classmates to come forward.
“We’ve saved a lot of kids locking him up,” he said outside Campbelltown District Court on Monday.
Crying parents hugged their teary sons in the packed courtroom and some had to step outside as graphic details of Matthews’ crimes were read out.
Matthews had students commit acts of indecency on themselves and he performed sexual acts on them — mostly in the classroom.
“It makes you vomit in your mouth,” the teen said.
Matthews said he was teaching his pupils the “art of self pleasure” which Judge Jennifer English found to be incredulous.
She sentenced the Bradbury “predator” to a maximum 18 years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years, saying the once popular teacher grossly abused his position of trust.
Matthews’ victim thinks the “disgusting peadophile” doesn’t stand a chance at rehabilitating and had hoped for a longer stint behind bars.
The court heard that the youngster wore a tight swimming costume to school everyday to deny the popular teacher “easy access”.
The teen felt there’d finally been a power shift watching Matthews rocking back and forth in court before being handcuffed and led away.
“It was good to see him shitting himself,” he said.
Matthews wrote letters to each of his victims from jail which defence barrister Sue Kluss said showed significant contrition for the crimes which “destroyed the career that he loved so much”.
“They all indicate that in no way does he blame the victim in any case,” she said.
“It also indicates a promise to do something about it.”
Matthews taught at the school for seven years before becoming an assistant principal at Campbelltown’s Woodland Road Public School in 2016.
The teen felt let down by the school and teachers who knew his attacker was breaking the rules by keeping kids back alone at lunchtime for private tutoring.
When he confided in his friends about the ordeal they called him a liar and made jokes about him being gay.
The boy says if he and his classmates had been given proper sex education — which should have been delivered by Matthews — they would have known how wrong the behaviour was and may have spoken up sooner.
With National Child Protection Week underway, the boy is calling for specially-trained external third parties to deliver sex education in all NSW schools.
“The system needs to be fixed,” he said.