Prosecution calls for prison time for ex-Alice Springs school principal
Prosecutors in the case against former high-profile Alice Springs principal Gavin Morris, who was found guilty of assaulting four school children in his care, have argued that he should be given prison time.
A high-profile Alice Springs principal found guilty of assaulting four children in his care should be handed a prison sentence, prosecutors in his trial have argued.
In a hearing at Alice Springs Local Court ahead of his sentencing on Thursday, prosecutor James Moore said that a sentence less than jail time for ex-principal of Yipirinya School Gavin Morris would be “inadequate and manifestly so”.
“The Director’s position is that the purposes of sentencing, and most notably, general deterrence, denunciation, punishment, in a case like this would not be met unless your honours sentence involved with it a not insignificant period of actual incarceration,” he said.
Morris has already filed an appeal against his convictions, after he was been found guilty of choking two of his young Indigenous students in mid-2023 and forcefully pulling the ears of two others in October.
Yipirinya School caters to Aboriginal students from the town camps and outstations around Alice Springs.
Judge Anthony Hopkins, in his judgement, also found the application of force against the children, aged between eight and 13, did not fall within the boundaries of “appropriate discipline management”.
Morris’ lawyer John Wilson argued for a suspended sentence, possibly with a period of home detention, which would not require him to spend time behind bars.
Mr Wilson, who said he was limited in his submissions due to the conviction appeal, said Judge Anthony Hopkins could find as an explanation for the offending that Mr Morris was in a “pressure cooker-type environment of the Yipirinya school and that challenges that came with being the principal at that school.”
He said that was “set against the backdrop of his childhood deprivation, which was marked by the instability, the alcohol abuse and the violence, and the capacity that kind of childhood, and the effects of it, which don’t diminish over time, to potentially provide an explanation for offenders who react impulsively and violently in situations of high stress.”
Mr Wilson said his client has instructed him that there were regular issues with vandalism at the school, repeated thefts of the school bus, and that he was exposed to suspected sexual abuse of students including kids who would test positive to sexually transmitted diseases.
“It was, as Mr Morris instructs, the most challenging environment, work environment, of his career,” Mr Wilson said.
He said each offence “occurred in response to a stressful environment that was marked by behavioural issues of the student concerned”.
The court heard about Morris’ childhood of domestic violence, poverty and emotional neglect, and that he “viewed education as his path out of hardship” eventually completing a PhD.
Prosecutor Mr Moore argued that each offence involved “a grave breach of trust, authority and power” and in an environment where the community expected them to be safe. “The crown submission about provocation and explanation is that each sentence was unprovoked,” Mr Moore said.
“Yes, there was some stimulus in that each of the children were engaged in some kind of behaviour that Mr Morris took issue with, but in each case, the behaviour on the part of the victim had ceased by the time the offender approached them.
“And in each case the response on the part of Mr Morris was such a gross and disproportionate over-reaction, it was aggressive, it was gratuitous, and in those circumstances any suggestions of an explanation or a provocation effectively goes out the window.”
He argued the offending was “not out of character” as there were multiple different victims in multiple different circumstances.
Mr Moore argued that, noting an appeal had been filed, the “absence of remorse, the absence of insight, the apparent failure to accept responsibility, the absence of evidence about rehabilitation, these are all issues that would give the court concern when it comes to the important consideration of community protection.”
Mr Morris was found not guilty of one of the three choking charges as Judge Hopkins said he was “unable to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the application of force” after the court heard two varying accounts of the alleged incident.
Over two weeks in September, Alice Springs Local Court heard from four of the five children who were allegedly assaulted. The media was not allowed into the courtroom to hear their testimony due to a statutory prohibition.
In handing down his judgment, Judge Hopkins accepted that a number of the children did not return to school following the assaults, which occurred in mid-2023.
Mr Morris, who was charged on August 8 last year, did not give evidence or call witnesses in his defence.
