Former primary school teacher’s appeal upheld in Supreme Court
A former primary school teacher found guilty of indecently assaulting four young girls appealed his sentence in the Supreme Court.
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A St Marys man who is serving 11 years in jail for indecent assault had his appeal upheld in the Supreme Court.
However, he will remain behind bars for at least five more years as his overall sentence was not reduced.
The man, a former primary school teacher, was sentenced for 13 counts of indecent assault and two counts of aggravated acts of indecency against four different students in 2015 and 2016.
His custodial sentence began in 2018, and was backdated to July 19, 2016.
The court heard that the man had forced four young girls, who can’t be named for legal reasons, to touch his erect penis through his trousers several times.
His behaviour towards one of the victims was described as “grooming”.
During his appeal, heard by Justices Payne, Fullerton and Adamson, the applicant argued 11 years was a very lengthy sentence of imprisonment, the kind which might be expected to be imposed for serious examples of offences with maximum penalties of 20 or 25 years or life imprisonment.
His original charges had a maximum penalty of 10 years.
He argued that while most of his offences called for full-time custodial sentences, nothing about the circumstances of the indecent assaults justified individual sentences ranging from three to five years.
Justice Payne found that “a number of the individual sentences imposed by the sentencing judge were unreasonable or plainly unjust”.
In re-sentencing, Justice Payne took into account that the man had several medical problems in custody and had applied to participate in a custody-based sex offender program.
However, he was unconvinced the man wouldn’t reoffend based on the evidence.
The Supreme Court found that while the individual sentences imposed were manifestly excessive, the overall effective sentence was not.
The man will be eligible for parole on July 18, 2024.