STATE OF TASMANIA v AJG 2 AUGUST 2019
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
AJG, you plead guilty to maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person. The offending took place during the period of about four months from 23 July 2018 until 12 November 2018, the day before the complainant’s 17th birthday. At the relevant time you were aged 38, married and with children. For about 13 years until September 2017 you were a secondary school teacher, first in Victoria and then in Tasmania. In 2016 you taught the complainant for one of her subjects. Your respective families became close friends and you frequently socialised together.
In 2017 and early 2018 you experienced difficulties with your marriage, although you and your wife and children continued to live in the same house. She confessed to having affairs. You resigned from your teaching position but continued to experience a period of emotional confusion and turmoil. By then the complainant was a student at a senior secondary college. You agreed to tutor her in science, which took place at your family home. Over time your relationship with her became more intense. You discussed personal issues and exchanged confidences. She developed an infatuation with you, which she made you aware of by kissing you in April 2018. In July 2018 you were both travelling to Melbourne for different reasons and arrangements were made, with the approval of her parents, for you to travel together. Once in Melbourne you both lied about having missed the return flight and stayed in a hotel together. Vaginal sexual intercourse took place in the hotel room that night and again the following morning. Following your return to Tasmania the relationship continued. There were three further instances of vaginal sexual intercourse, and, on one occasion, digital penetration. There were further instances of sexual intercourse after the complainant’s 17th birthday which, by then, were not unlawful. The relationship was discovered when your wife found messages between you and the complainant. She initially kept it secret, but the police were notified by a teacher in whom your wife later confided. You confessed to the complainant’s parents and, when interviewed by the police on 18 January 2019, you admitted what you had done.
You are now 39. As is commonly the case for crimes of this nature you have no prior convictions. Since resigning as a teacher you have been working in other lower skilled employment of various forms. Your marriage has now ended but this crime is only part of the reason for that. You will suffer punishment beyond the sentence I impose. You will be effectively precluded from ever returning to teaching. You have suffered social and professional disgrace. I have two references, one from a former student and one from a teaching colleague, both of whom speak highly of you. You have support from other members of your family. I also have a report from a psychologist. It describes the considerable financial, employment, home and relationship stressors that you were experiencing at the time, but does not identify any deficit or condition which may reduce your criminal culpability. You are entitled to the benefit of your early plea of guilty. The complainant was aware, from an early stage, that she would not be required to give evidence.
Your crime is to be distinguished from more serious examples which involve younger children, non-consensual and degrading sexual activity and longer periods of offending. The consensual sexual intercourse occurred only a relatively short time before it became lawful. Your relationship with the complainant was one of mutual affection. She has written a letter expressing a strong continuing affection for you, praising your character and indicating that she has not been affected in any adverse way. However she is not yet 18. The law is in place to protect those who lack the emotional maturity and judgment to protect themselves from the physical and psychological harm which premature sexual activity is presumed to cause. Harm may yet manifest itself with the passage of time and her increased maturity and change of circumstances. There is a disparity in age of about 20 years. You were not predatory, controlling or manipulative. You were emotionally distressed for other reasons. However it was your responsibility, as a mature adult, to resist the temptation to engage in sexual relations with a girl of that age. You believed that sex with a 16 year old was not unlawful. For an experienced secondary school teacher, such a mistake is reckless and inexcusable. Because you had been her teacher, and were her tutor and a family friend, you were in a position of trust to both the complainant and her parents. I regard the breach of that trust by taking advantage of the opportunity for sexual relations which arose by reason of it as a very significant factor in sentencing. Those factors, combined with her age, made her vulnerable to the type of emotions which led to sexual activity. The sentence must reflect the need to protect the community by deterring others in a similar position who may be tempted to act in the same way, and to punish and denounce such acts.
AJG, you are convicted. In light of Mr Marriott’s report I think the risk that you may commit another offence of this nature is small, but because of the nature and circumstances of this crime, I am not satisfied that you pose no risk. Thus I must make an order under the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 directing that the Registrar cause your name to be placed on the Register and that you comply with the reporting obligations under that Act for a period of two years from your release. I sentence you to a term of imprisonment of two years. I suspend one year of that sentence for two years from your release. I order that you not be eligible for parole until you have served half of the operative part of that sentence.