An 81-year-old former teacher and principal who sexually assaulted young girls at a Melbourne school four decades ago has been jailed for a second time inside two years.
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Trevor Crocker was considered a father figure by some grade two girls he taught at a primary school in Melbourne's north-eastern suburbs in 1975 and 1976, but breached that trust by indecently assaulting three girls aged between six and eight.
Crocker indecently assaulted one girl when she sat on his lap, offended against another when he held her on his hip and brazenly abused another while giving her a piggy back ride in front of classmates, prosecutor Matt Fisher told Melbourne Magistrates Court.
The offending also included sexual assaults behind a shelter shed, Mr Fisher said, and after music class.
Magistrate Belinda Wallington on Monday jailed Crocker for four months after he pleaded guilty to three counts of indecently and unlawfully assaulting a girl.
Crocker avoided jail in 2005 for indecently assaulting another five girls in the same class, but was in 2014 jailed for four months for offending against three girls at another Melbourne primary school in 1978. He has now been prosecuted for indecently assaulting 11 girls.
The 40-year career teacher, who retired in 1997 after stints at a string of Melbourne schools, including time as principal, did not react when led away from his wife and into custody.
The three women Crocker abused as girls were in court and spoke of profound and lasting impacts in victim impact statements, including mental-health and relationship problems, and anxiety.
One said she never knew what she could have achieved in life had she not met her teacher, and feared one day her suicidal feelings would overtake her and "my children will be left without a mother".
Another said she had experienced shame and emotional confusion, had abused alcohol later in life, and feared people in authority, which had made her "hyper-vigilant" with her own children at their school.
The third woman to address the court said she hated Crocker for his input in her love of music, and because her parents had initially not believed her reporting, which had put a wedge between them.
She told him: "You knew it was wrong and you did not stop ... and so many innocent girls paid the price."
Defence counsel Ian Hill, QC, said Crocker had a strained relationship with his adult children, because of the offending, and was in poor health, but that a jail term was warranted. The former teacher will be classified a serious sexual offender for the rest of his life.
