Stuart Van Dyken: Inner west teacher’s alleged sexual comments
The trial of an inner west teacher, alleged to have performed a sex act with a teen, has heard from several of his former pupils. They alleged in court that he regularly made ‘inappropriate’ sexual comments, remarked on a student’s breasts and discussed his Tinder dates.
Inner West
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A teacher accused of performing a sexual act with a schoolgirl regularly made inappropriate sexual jokes in class and even commented on the size of a student’s breasts, it has been alleged in court.
Stuart Robert Van Dyken, 51, is on trial accused of making a girl perform an oral sex act on him after hours in an empty classroom in 2018.
The Leppington man denies the charge of sexual intercourse with a child under special care and an alternate charge of inciting a child over 16 under care to perform an act of indecency.
On the fourth day of his trial a number of his former students gave evidence at the Downing Centre.
They alleged he would make “inappropriate” comments in class, would make “sexual mum jokes” to certain students and discuss his Tinder dates and personal life.
“As a student, you wouldn’t expect a teacher to make sexual jokes towards your mother, which in my eyes is very inappropriate,” one student witness said.
“He would … talk about dates he had on the weekend and how they went.
“(He had) one (date) with a blonde girl that he was saying he was into blonde girls.”
The complainant’s classmate recalled a time when Van Dyken allegedly crossed his legs and clasped both hands over his top knee in the presence of a female student, before saying something like “the only reason I’m sitting like this is because she has mature features”.
The student said Van Dyken was insinuating he had to cover up whatever “was happening in his groin area”.
The trial has previously heard Van Dyken allegedly organised to meet a student in an empty classroom and then pressured her to perform an oral sex act.
Giving evidence on Monday, one student, who described herself as “very close” with Van Dyken said: “If I would wear a (certain) top, he would just say they (my breasts) were showing too much or they were popping out too much.
“He would say that I was very mature in that area.”
Text messages between Van Dyken and this female student were shown as part of her evidence in court.
After writing her number on a class worksheet “as a joke” with the words “call me … if you wanna meet me”, Van Dyken allegedly decided to text her.
An exchange allegedly resulted about the names each person had saved the other as in their phone.
Screenshots showed the student had saved him jokingly as “Van Diesel” and Van Dyken had saved her as BT, which the student said she assumed meant “Big tits”.
His defence however suggested that it referred to “B2” as Van Dyken called the student, along with another student whom he called “B1”, in a Bananas in Pyjamas reference.
Both students also alleged on another occasion Van Dyken grabbed the complainant’s head between his hands and kissed her on the forehead during a surprise birthday for the teacher.
The complainant later “gloated” about the kiss, according to a witness.
The complainant’s father also gave evidence on Monday.
He repeatedly told the court he was “so upset” after his daughter revealed the alleged incident.
“When your daughter talks to you about things like that, I couldn’t believe it … Two years I haven’t been living properly because I can’t believe what happened,” he said.
“I was mad. I couldn’t believe something would happen to my daughter at school. Things like that shouldn’t happen at school.”
The trial continues.