Child abuse scandal exposes key Victorian Liberal Matthew Guy

VICTORIAN Liberal leader-in-waiting Matthew Guy has suffered a blow after his most senior adviser was exposed as a sexual predator.

VICTORIAN Liberal leader-in-waiting Matthew Guy suffered a serious blow to his authority yesterday after his most senior ­adviser was exposed as a sexual predator who had harassed a 15-year-old schoolgirl with suggestive emails and inappropriate touching.

Mr Guy’s planning adviser, Marc Boxer, quit his ministerial office position after The Australian detailed the findings of an independent tribunal showing a series of inappropriate, sexually based emails Mr Boxer had sent in his previous teaching career.

Mr Boxer’s resignation marks the first sex scandal in the four-year-old government as it fights to win the November 29 election.

The resignation will spark questions about what Mr Guy knew — and when — given Mr Boxer was struck off as a teacher a decade ago over his predatory behaviour and evidence of the sex scandal was freely available on the public record. Mr Guy is considered the man most likely to replace Premier Denis Napthine if the Coalition loses office in November or if Dr Napthine stands down mid-term after winning.

Mr Boxer was struck off as a teacher in 2004 after an email trail and other evidence showed he had been effectively courting the 15-year-old student. He was twice her age. An independent tribunal found that Mr Boxer, now aged in his 40s, had emailed the schoolgirl asking “How quickly do you want me to remove all articles of clothing?” It found he had touched her on the bottom while pulling up her gym pants.

The inquiry heard evidence that Mr Boxer had put his hands down her gym pants and that the teacher admitted this may have occurred because “at that time he was a tactile person with students”.

Mr Boxer denied to the Victorian Institute of Teaching that he had pursued the teenager for sexual reasons although evidence was heard that the girl had grown concerned about his behaviour.

The institute gathered evidence in 2004 showing how Mr Boxer had bombarded the girl with emails, some late at night, over several months.

In one of those messages the victim interpreted the detail as “an invitation to sleep with him” and the student had believed some of the messages were of a sexual nature.

“The panel finds that the teacher’s writing and sending of emails containing overt sexual references and suggestions constitutes serious misconduct on his part and, given the length of time over which these offences occurred, and their seriousness, that the teacher is a person unfit to teach,” it found.

“In the matter of the teacher inappropriately touching (the girl) by putting his hand inside her PE pants and pulling up her shorts, the panel accepts that on the balance of probabilities it seems that such an action did occur given the teacher’s propensity for touching students.”

Mr Boxer did not respond to The Australian and a government spokesman said: “Mr Boxer has today tendered his resignation as a ministerial adviser. His resignation has been accepted.’’

Mr Boxer is understood to have been on leave from the Planning Department, which will have to decide on his future in the public service. This had not happened last night.

Mr Boxer is a former departmental liaison officer to the previous Labor planning minister Justin Madden and continued in that role with Mr Guy before being promoted by the Coalition minister to become his planning adviser. Mr Guy did not answer a series of questions submitted by The Australian about what he knew (and when) about Mr Boxer’s past. Mr Boxer also did not respond to a series of questions submitted by The Australian, including whether there were any mitigating factors in his being struck off the teaching register.

Mr Guy has been one of the government’s most effective ministers but his office has been embroiled in controversy for much of the past four years. His “can-do’’ style has attracted criticism.

Ombudsman George Brouwer savaged his department for failing to provide fearless advice and for buckling under pressure from advisers, including Mr Boxer, over the rezoning of land for housing in 2011 at the holiday destination of Phillip Island in 2011.