Ex-Trinity Grammar teacher Neil Futcher loses bid to overturn jail sentence for sexually abusing students

Neil Futcher denied sexually abusing six boys under his care in the late 70s and early 80s. A jury found differently. Now his appeal against those findings has been thrown out.

A former teacher who worked at some of the state’s most prestigious schools has failed to overturn his 11-year prison sentence for raping and sexually assaulting boys.

Former Trinity Grammar staff Neil Futcher was jailed for a maximum of 18 years and four months in the Sydney District Court in 2017, more than 30 years after he repeatedly molested six boys under his care on school camps and during other extra-curricular activities.

Futcher had pleaded not guilty to 22 charges relating to the victims, who were aged between 11 and 15 at the time of the offences, and took the matter to trial.

Jurors found him guilty on all counts, prompting his victims to sob in court as the verdicts were read out.

The court heard Futcher had shown some of the boys porn movies and magazines, and the abuse happened in his Drummoyne unit, the back of his red Escort panel van and a cubicle at Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Former teacher and convicted pedophile Neil Albert Futcher pictured leaving Sydney’s District Court during his trial in 2017. Picture: AAP

He threatened some of his victims with harm and exposure if they reported him and in 2015 “begged” one of them to forget about it.

The court heard the abuse happened when Futcher worked as a teacher at Trinity Grammar and taught swimming at Pymble.

He had previously taught at Sydney Grammar School and was also boarding master at Knox Grammar School.

During sentencing, the judge praised the courage of the men who came forward and described Futcher as a predator, whose offending was “born of his sexual gratification”.

Futcher, who gave evidence at the trial denying any sexual activity had occurred with the victims, lodged an appeal against his convictions in August 2024, arguing the jury’s verdicts of guilty were unreasonable.

He also claimed he was denied a fair trial, that the judge had made a mistake in allowing surveillance device evidence to be used against him, and that a miscarriage of justice occurred because the prosecution failed to call all the witnesses in the trial.

However, the Court of Criminal Appeal threw out Futcher’s case, finding none of his appeal grounds were made out.

Futcher will be eligible to apply for release on parole in September 2027.