Ex-Koori education officer Howard Bruce Armstrong jailed at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court for sexually abusing teenage boy

An ex-Koori education officer who worked with kids in Central Victorian schools has been brought down for the “degrading” molestation of a teenage boy and showing him “horse porn”.

Howard Bruce Armstrong was a Koori Education Officer employed by the Education Department who has worked in multiple Central Vic schools over the last few years.

An ex-Koori education officer who worked with kids in Central Victorian schools has been jailed for the “degrading” molestation of a teenage boy and showing him “horse porn”.

Howard Bruce Armstrong, 59, of Echuca was jailed at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Thursday for sexually abusing a child between September 2020 and September 2021.

Magistrate Johanna Metcalf said Armstrong abused a position of trust to sexually assault the teenager, in a “humiliating” and “degrading” “pattern of offending”.

Echuca man Armstrong worked in schools in Central Victoria for years.

Armstrong exhibited “grooming behaviour” when he started to show the victim bestiality – “horse porn” – and talk to him “about sex in detail”.

Armstrong then sexually assaulted the teenage boy on multiple occasions, the court heard, cornering the child and forcing his hand into his shorts, grabbing his penis and masturbating him before telling the child: “don't tell anyone”.

The victim told police he “froze” while thinking “please don’t, please just stop”.

Armstrong later exposed himself to the child, “pleading” with the victim to engage in sexual acts

Ms Metcalf said the victim was “brave in coming forward” and had expressed a desire that “this doesn’t happen to anyone else”.

Ms Metcalf said the victim and his family had provided “very powerful” statements to the court.

The court heard Armstrong had traumatised the victim, impacting his education and leaving him with flashbacks of the disgusting exploitation, leaving him feeling trapped and fearful he would run into Armstrong.

“It’s fortunate he has a strong and loving family to support him, but it’s clear that your offending is something that he will carry with him for the rest of his life,” Ms Metcalf told Armstrong as she denounced his vile acts.

Ms Metcalf said the offending was “opportunistic” and Armstrong’s moral culpability was high, observing a psychological report found Armstrong had a “limited insight” into his offending and “had yet to take responsibility for his actions”.

However, his early plea of guilty spared the victim form being brutally cross examined at trial, which discounted his sentence.

The court heard Armstrong had made a “serious suicide attempt” after he “lost his job and his reputation” as a result of his offending, with a psychological report finding prison would “adversely affect” his mental health.

Armstrong’s three separate child abuse charges each carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Armstrong was jailed for molesting a teenage boy.

However, because the case was dealt with summarily in the magistrates court, his sentence cannot be higher than five years.

Armstrong’s defence lawyers argued for a community corrections order, while police fought for serious jail-time with a non-parole period.

Ms Metcalf said the court “must send a strong message that offending against children is just unacceptable “and Armstrong’s child abuse “called for an immediate term of imprisonment”.

“Sexual offending affects children for the whole of their lives and we’ve seen it time and time again how people have been negatively impacted by sexual offending,” she said.

Armstrong was placed on the sex offenders registry for life, convicted and sentenced to four months in prison followed by an 18 month community corrections order to begin upon his release.

“Had you not pleaded guilty I would have been looking at a prison term of about eight months,” Ms Metcalf said.