Mildura teacher Jack Freeman in court over child grooming charges

A Mildura primary school teacher promised a mother he “wasn’t a predator” after being caught sending inappropriate messages to a student.

Jack Freeman promised a mother he “wasn’t a predator” after being caught messaging her son inappropriately on social media.

A Mildura teacher has been caught inappropriately messaging students as young as 12 by using “mentoring program” as a front.

Jack Freeman, 32, pleaded guilty in the Mildura Magistrates’ Court on November 24 to one charge of grooming a child by words and conduct to facilitate involvement in a sexual offence and one charge of attempting to groom a child under the age of 16 after parents exposed his messages to young, vulnerable students.

The court heard Freeman had first offended in 2014 in his first teaching role.

In 2014 Freeman ignored warnings from the principal of The Lake Primary Schooland started a mentoring program for students via the social media site Kik.

The court heard Freeman “identified a vulnerable student” due to his parents experiencing a marriage breakdown and messaged his mother to inform her of the contact.

She would later tell police she was “initially pleased” that her son would have a role model in Freeman.

Conversations between Freeman and his victim quickly turned sexual when the student confessed that he and his friends would take silly photos of each other using the social media platform Snapchat and use the in-app function to draw penises’ on each other.

The court heard Freeman encouraged the student to send him the images, offering up his own Snapchat account.

In messages read out to the court, Freeman had received three screenshots from the student, to which Freeman replied “he copped a mouthful of c--- haha”.

Suspended primary school teacher Jack Freeman pleaded guilty in Mildura Magistrates’ Court to child abuse charges.

The court heard the victim’s mother checked her son’s social media accounts in November 2014, where she discovered the conversations

After she confronted the teacher about the messages, the court heard he was “extremely apologetic”, even going as far as saying “I promise I’m not a predator”.

After Freeman asked her not to tell anyone about the interactions, the mother reported him to the school, the education board and then to the police.

An investigation was opened but Freeman resigned from his teaching role at the school in February 2015, leaving the investigation to be closed with no findings.

The court heard Freeman went on to start a private tutoring service which he ran until his further offending was exposed in 2023.

Freeman and his second victim were at an event together

After it ended, Freeman offered to drive his second victim home, talking to the victim about school bullies and his other concerns.

The court heard the parents of the second victim weren’t concerned about the contact, because Freeman held a working with children’s check and trusted him.

Freeman messaged the victim back and forth, including messages where he covertly asked the victim if he masturbates when he’s home alone.

The court heard Jack Freeman exploited his position of power against vulnerable children.

“Level with me, I feel like there’s one thing I’d be doing if I was home alone at 13,” Freeman wrote, followed by the devil face emoji.

Freeman interacted with his second victim for two months before their communication was revealed by a parent of the victim’s girlfriend.

When confronted, Freeman initially denied communicating with the victim, but a police investigation exposed the conversations in the victim’s mobile phone.

In court on Friday, DPP prosecutor Jeri Fung said Freeman had “exploited his position of power with very vulnerable children”.

“He’s specifically targeted children who are dealing with bullies at school or family breakdowns,” he said.

“Upon resigning, he’s continued to work with children that are vulnerable by way of tutoring them.”

Magistrate Patrick Southey said he wanted the victims to have the opportunity to submit victim impact statements before he passed down the sentence.

Freeman will return to the Mildura Magistrates’ Court on December 1 for sentencing.