‘Disgusting pedophile’ moved schools post student abuse
A father sexually assaulted two schoolchildren more than a decade before launching a depraved 14-year campaign of torture and abuse against his daughter.
Two teenage girls reported harassment by their then physical education teacher to the school in 1984, and instead of a police investigation, an education department investigation was launched.
The man, whose name was not released to protect the identities of his victims, moved their school to a nearby town.
He was not tried for this crime until 2025.
The teacher later moved to NSW in the 1990s, where he had four children, one of whom was subjected to “depraved and sadistic” abuse for 14 years, a judge found in 2016.
The girl was subjected to sustained sexual abuse and torture between the ages of five and 19, mostly while she was detained in a dilapidated tin shed that had been a chicken coop.
The man, now 69, is serving one of the longest sentences for child abuse in Australia – 46 years – for the crime and will be eligible for parole when he is 96.
He appeared in the Victorian State Court on Friday for crimes against his former students.
A jury found him guilty in December of five offenses, including criminal sexual intercourse with a child under 16, while he was a teacher at Traralgon High School in Victoria’s Gippsland region.
One of his victims read an emotional statement to the court on Friday, labeling the man a “disgusting pedophile”.
He was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault against the girl, who was in Year 11 at the time and was going to help him in PE class.
In 1983, he touched her inappropriately, including using a skinfold test to measure private parts of her body.
“I lost years of emotional and sexual development, and it negatively changed my life for decades,” he told the court.
The former student described his experience while being interviewed by the education department asking “why and how men in black suits?” He explained that he was “confused, defeated and humiliated” when asked.
“He didn’t know, he just didn’t want others to endure it,” the woman said.
Another student who reported his abuse to the school was also 15 years old when he engaged in sexual intercourse with her while under her care, supervision, or authority as her teacher.
After leaving Traralgon in 1983, Adam continued to study at various schools, moving to Presentation College in nearby Moe and then to St Anne’s Gippsland in 1989.
Prosecutor Sandra MacDougall asked the judge to take into account his subsequent crimes against his child when sentencing, on the grounds that he “did nothing to rehabilitate himself”.
He said he should be treated as a serious sex offender and the sentence should include time served in addition to the NSW sentence.
The man’s lawyer, Paul Kounnas, argued that the Victorian sentence should be concurrent, meaning the sentence would be served at the same time as the NSW term due to delays, and that “he will be very old when he is released from prison”.
Mr. Kounnas offered two character references from his two children who continue to support him.
He will be sentenced on June 16.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Resolution Support Service 1800 211 028
Child Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
