Teacher who stalked student for three years spared jail, conviction recorded

A Melbourne high school teacher who called a student “his queen” and threatened self harm if she ignored him during a campaign of stalking has avoided jail.

A Chinese language teacher has been convicted after stalking his much younger student for three years. Picture: Ian Currie

A secondary teacher who stalked his student for three years has had a conviction recorded against him due to the “significant” age gap between him and his victim.

Zhaoguo “William” Yue, 31, pleaded guilty to a single count of stalking a girl from his inner suburban Melbourne high school who he told he was in love with and was “jealous” when she spoke to male classmates.

At Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Yue was sentenced to a two-year community correction order but warned by a magistrate if any further offending occurred he would likely end up behind bars.

Magistrate John Hardy previously told the Chinse language teacher he would be spared jail because he was a first-time offender who had pleaded guilty.

But on Thursday he conceded a conviction was necessary due to the abusive nature of the relationship and the age disparity between Yue and the girl who was half his age.

“I understand that will potentially affect you substantially in the future but ... I’m of the view that the order must be made,” Mr Hardy said.

The court previously heard the stalking, which occurred in Collingwood from September 2017 to December 2020, began when Yue sent the girl messages on WeChat after a school trip to China, where the class had downloaded the encrypted app to keep in touch.

The student was “freaked out” by her teacher who he referred to her as “his queen” and “Your highness”.

The court previously heard the stalking began when Yue sent the girl messages on WeChat after a school trip. Picture: Penny Stephens

Yue told the girl his behaviour may be “disgusting” and “inappropriate” but it was not something he could control.

On one occasion, the court heard Yue told the girl if he didn’t see her on WeChat for a few days he would get “depressed and start hurting myself” to the point of needing medical attention.

“My instincts tell me you are worth going to hell for,” he wrote.

When she was in year 10, the court was told he would call her late at night and ask “what is the point of living” if he couldn’t be with her, even suggesting he quit his job so they could be in a relationship.

“If God gives me one more day to live … and I get to date you I will take the offer, I would give anything to be 10 years younger, even if it’s just for one day,” he once wrote to her in a “goodbye” letter.

On her 18th birthday, Yue gifted her a “Dirty Chinese” phrase book featuring explicit sex terms.

The girl only reported Yue to the school after she graduated in 2020 because she was “too afraid that it would affect her schooling negatively”, with the matter then reported to police.

Mr Hardy said her victim impact statement — which she did not want read in open court — described the “significant stress and anxiety” she suffered through her entire secondary schooling because of his offending.

Yue, who was fired from his job and suspended from teaching, now works as a concierge at a building company and had “embraced Christianity”.

He was sentenced to a two-year community correction order and ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid community work.