Digby Barrow: Darwin music teacher given suspended sentence for indecent assault on teen

A respected Darwin music teacher’s fall from grace is complete, after he was sentenced for an indecent assault on a teen student of his, with the attack preceded by an escalating campaign of hugs.

Music teacher Digby Paul Gordon Barrow. Picture: Supplied.

A renowned Darwin music teacher who gave hugs to a teenage student and fondled the victim’s genitals on one occasion has been handed a suspended term of imprisonment.

Digby Paul Gordon Barrow, 68, pleaded guilty to a single charge of indecently assaulting a child under the age of 16.

He was sentenced in the Supreme Court at Darwin on Monday.

The court was told Barrow, a former musical director of the Darwin Chorale who has taught at multiple Top End schools, had known the victim for several years.

During a lesson, the victim was feeling “nervous” because it was one of the first practical lessons he had done with Barrow.

Noticing this, Barrow asked if he could hug the student, who said yes.

They hugged and the lesson “continued as usual,” Justice Stephen Southwood said.

“From then on, the offender would regularly request hugs from the complainant increasing in frequency until it got to a point where he no longer asked permission but just gestured he wanted to hug and proceeded to do so,” the judge said.

On the day of the indecent assault, towards the end of the lesson, Barrow became “unusually quiet and was giving the complainant funny looks or funny side eyes”.

While the student played his insturment, the defendant placed his left hand on the victim’s thigh, then “lightly” squeezed his testicles twice over the shorts he was wearing.

“The complainant turned and looked at the offender who then pulled his hand away,” Justice Southwood said.

“The complainant felt scared and uncomfortable and continued playing without speaking until the end of the lesson.

“He was then collected by his father who had been waiting on a chair just outside the room.”

Barrow was arrested late last year after the victim made a disclosure to his parents, telling them, “Digby groped me and he touched my testicles.”

The defendant spent six days remanded in pre-sentence custody before being granted bail.

In a victim impact statement, the teen told the court he still thought of Barrow’s hand on him.

“For a while after the incident, each time I passed Digby’s old practice room I felt my heart beat faster and flashes of the incident showed in my head,” he said.

“I was having a lesson with my new teacher.

“They stood up to stand behind me which startled me as it reminded me of how Digby moved behind me like that before as well.”

Justice Southwood said Barrow, prior to the current offending, was “obviously a person of good standing in the community” who had no prior criminal history.

However, balanced against that, the indecent assault “involved a serious breach of trust” due to the age difference and Barrow’s “position of power and influence”.

Barrow was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended forthwith on the condition he be of good behaviour for the period of the suspension, and not contact his victim either directly or indirectly.