Stuart Van Dyken: Inner west teacher jailed for sex act with student
Stuart Van Dyken watched on stony-faced in his prison greens as he was jailed for coercing a schoolgirl into performing a sex act on him. In jailing him, a judge slammed his use of ‘psychological pressure’ after the incident and said he would never work again as a teacher.
Inner West
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner West. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The inner west high school teacher who encouraged a student to perform an oral sex act on him in an empty classroom has been jailed.
Stuart Van Dyken, usually sporting a navy blue suit, appeared on screen stony-faced at the Downing Centre District Court on Friday in his prison greens.
The 52-year-old, has been in custody since Judge Penelope Hock found him guilty of having sex with a child under his special care and inciting a child over 16 to perform an act of indecency.
On Friday he was jailed for three years with a minimum of 18 months.
It was accepted in court that the Leppington man, then 49, was talking with the girl alone in his office when the conversation shifted and he asked her if she would give him oral sex “right now”.
The father-of-two told her to meet him in a nearby classroom.
The girl went to the classroom, felt pressured and reluctantly tried to unbutton his pants but eventually told him “she couldn’t do it”.
She said she felt a “hard lump” beneath his trousers and he stood between her and the doorway.
She tried to escape, she told the court, but he persisted and encouraged her.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “It didn’t look like he was going to let me out”.
She then briefly performed the oral sex act
Van Dyken later told her: “My life’s in your hands. I have children, I won’t be able to see them. My job’s in your hands”.
Judge Hock on Friday called this “psychological pressure” and said it made the offending worse.
In sentencing Van Dyken to three years in prison, Judge Hock also said there was an element of coercion.
“He was a person (she was) entitled to look for guidance and protection and he grossly abused the trust placed in him as a schoolteacher,” Judge Hock said.
Judge Hock said he had no prior criminal record but was not a person of good character in the court’s eyes due to a folder of clandestine photos he had hidden in a locked folder on his phone.
This app, accessible only by a passcode, held intimate images of women taken without their knowledge, including photos of the student victim.
The photos found of the victim were taken from behind and she was wearing her school uniform.
Judge Hock said the incident was “isolated” and acknowledged that the management consultant turned teacher would never work in education again and so was unlikely to reoffend.
Van Dyken will be eligible for release on December 9, 2021.