Angelos Tsoltoudis: Beecroft guitar teacher jailed
A music teacher who had gained the trust of his teenage pupils and their parents indecently assaulted two girls who had gone to him for lessons. He watched on from jail today as he faced his sentence.
Northern District Times
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A disgraced music teacher who assaulted two teenage students has been sentenced to an additional 16 months in jail.
Angelos Tsoltoudis, 56, was sentenced at Burwood Local Court after pleading guilty to three counts of indecently assaulting a person under 16. The two victims were 14 and 15 years old at the time.
The Beecroft father worked as a music teacher across several schools and as a private tutor at his home studio.
One of his victims attended regular guitar lessons with him. In 2016 he offered to give her “massages” to her neck and shoulders during music lessons which would last between 10-15 minutes.
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“The offender would massage her under her clothing and touch her skin,” according to agreed facts.
On one occasion the teen was wearing her school uniform and sitting on a chair when Tsoltoudis asked her if she was seeing anyone.
He then started touching her crotch area, according to facts.
A month later, she was 10 minutes into a lesson when he again insisting on giving her a massage standing behind her and touching her neck and back.
The facts state he then put his hands on her breasts and asked “Do you like that?” before she replied “no” and “no stop.”
Tsoltoudis was arrested in March 2019 after which another victim came forward following media coverage.
Court documents state the second girl went to group guitar lessons.
One morning in March 2013, she was setting up instruments along with Tsoltoudis and other students.
He starting talking to her before putting his hands on her breasts and saying “nipple cripple” before he laughed and walked away.
Tsoltoudis, who is currently serving jail time for the separate sexually assault of one of the victims, sat quietly as he appeared on screen donning his prison greens with his hair tied up in a ponytail.
His lawyer Leonie Gittani told the court he “expressed regret” and wanted to get his life back on track.
Tsoltoudis was previously sentenced to five years in jail with a non-parole period of three years at Sydney District Court in February after pleading guilty to having sexual intercourse with a person under 16.
Ms Gittani said the current offences fell below the mid-range of objective seriousness and asked for any jail time to run concurrently with his current sentence so he can still be released on parole on 25 March 2022.
Yet the crown challenged whether he expressed genuine remorse and said additional time to his sentence should be taken into consideration.
In her sentencing Magistrate Lisa Stapleton took aim at Tsoltoudis saying she doesn’t believe he expressed remorse.
“When one thinks of the perfection of teenagers both boys and girls, they’re untouchedness and trust in their teacher have been damaged.
“Who knows what will happen to these girls.”
The magistrate said she was limited on how much she could increase his non-parole period seeing as he is already serving time but told the court the case was one of “special circumstances” and sentenced him to 16 months in jail with a non-parole period of 12 months.
He will be eligible for parole on 25 March 2023.