Victorian teachers who have pleaded guilty to sickening sexual offences

These Victorian teachers have been stripped of their right to teach after being charged with horrifying sex crimes. Here are some of the state’s worst offenders.

Victorian teachers who have pleaded guilty to sickening sexual offences.

These Victorian teachers have been charged with shocking criminal offences and have been stripped of their right to teach.

In recent months, these teachers have been convicted by the courts after being charged with a slew of sexual offences, some spanning several years.

Depraved and disturbing acts include former Ballarat High music teacher who pleaded guilty to multiple sex charges.

Other sickening incidents include teachers who transmitted child abuse material.

The teachers’ registrations have been cancelled or suspended by the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Damien Woods

Ballarat High music teacher Damien Woods pleaded guilty to multiple child sex charges in August.

The Herald Sun first revealed in February that Woods was suspended from teaching and charged by police with child sex and grooming offences.

Damien Woods, former director of music at Ballarat High School, pleaded guilty to several child sex offences.

The 47-year-old Ararat man fronted Ballarat Magistrates’ Court over charges for offences in 2022, including possessing child abuse material and involving a child in producing that material.

Of the 34 initial charges 22 were withdrawn and Woods pleaded guilty to the 12 remaining including three counts of digitally penetrating a child, five counts of sexually touching a child and engaging in sexual activity in front of a child.

Woods was ordered to attend Ballarat County Court on January 22, 2024.

He was placed on trial bail which forbids him from contacting informants involved in the case or their families.

Kirk Skinner

Former Newhaven College director of music Kirk Skinner earlier this month confessed to multiple child sex offences against his students in crimes that span three decades and two schools.

Skinner faces potential jail time after he pleaded guilty to eight sex offences against six victims during his time teaching at Caulfield Grammar in the 1980s, and the Phillip Island school in the 2010s.

Former school teacher Kirk Skinner confessed to multiple sex offences against children. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Among charges the 63-year-old has admitted to include sexual penetration of a child and intentional sexual touching the genitals of boys, aged between 16 and 18.

Skinner’s admissions, made in June, were revealed after a gag order was lifted last week following a trial over charges of sexually assaulting a schoolboy, 12, during a music lesson in 2019.

Skinner will return to the County Court on November 29 for a pre-sentence hearing over the charges he’d pleaded guilty to.

Following that hearing, he will be handed a date for sentencing, where he will learn whether he will be sent to jail.

Peter Bartley

The ex-Trinity Catholic School principal avoided jail earlier this month after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three children, all aged under 10, when he was a teacher at Burwood’s St Scholastica’s Catholic Primary School in the late 1990s.

On multiple occasions, the court heard Peter Bartley told his victims to “look into my eyes” as he assaulted them, often in the presence of a classroom of children.

Peter Bartley, former principal of Richmond’s Trinity Catholic School, pleaded guilty to assaulting three children.

Despite their complaints to police, officers told the Catholic Education Office in the late 90s that no charges would be laid “because of insufficient evidence”.

Had he not pleaded guilty, he would have been sentenced to a maximum of 3 years and 8 months jail with a minimum of 18 months.

Bartley will be placed on the sex offender’s register and be subject to reporting conditions for the rest of his life.

Gary Bloom

A former Melbourne primary school teacher who showed a young boy a porn magazine before forcing him to carry out sex acts to “experiment his sexuality and sexual identity” escaped jail this month.

Gary Bloom received a suspended sentence of three years in the County Court and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 15 years, having earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault.

Bloom, now 68, committed the offences in 1985 when he was between 20 and 21 and worked at the Sacred Heart Primary School in Diamond Creek.

His victim was then aged between 11 and 12 and attended a different school.

The Judge said had Bloom not pleaded guilty, she would have imposed a sentence of three years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 months.

Ben Heels and Tristan Cullinan-Smayle

A Melbourne music teacher and his partner who gratified one another sexually through pictures of students and by performing unseen sexual acts in their presence had their offending labelled as “disgusting, depraved and obscene” by a sentencing judge in the County Court in March.

Benjamin Heels, a former teacher at Fountain Gate Secondary College in Melbourne’s southeast, and his long-term partner Tristan Cullinan-Smayle, had previously pleaded guilty to a combined 51 sexual offences between them.

Ben Heels was charged with 28 offences, while his partner Tristan Cullinan-Smayle was charged with 23 offences. Picture: Facebook

Heels, who was charged with 28 offences, including performing sexual acts in front of children under the age of 16, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of minors, sexually touching a minor and transmitting child abuse material, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his crimes.

Cullinan-Smayle, who was charged with 23 offences, including trying to procure sexual activity with children under the age of 16 and transmitting sexual abuse material, was hit with a 10-year sentence.

Heels will be eligible for parole in August 2028, with pre-sentence detention considered, while Cullinan-Smayle will be eligible for parole in December 2027 with his time already served taken into consideration, Judge Syme ruled. Both men have been placed on the sex offenders’ list and must comply with the reporting obligations for the rest of their lives.