Latest news with #PeterFarmer
Herald Sun
2 days ago
- Herald Sun
Ex Newborough primary teacher Peter Farmer jailed over child sex abuse
Don't miss out on the headlines from Bass Coast News. Followed categories will be added to My News. A pedophile primary school teacher who sexually assaulted five female students, often during class, will spend at least four years behind bars after pleading guilty to the vile abuse that 'ruined lives'. Peter Farmer, 66, was sentenced on Tuesday, more than 30 years after abusing 'fragile and innocent' young girls he taught at a school in Victoria's southeast. He was sentenced after pleading guilty to eight charges of indecent assault of a person under 16 and two charges of gross indecency with a person under 16. The offending took place at a Gippsland primary school where Farmer taught from 1982-1988. Farmer forced the girls to touch his penis and touched their vaginas while working as a teacher at Murray Road Primary School, now called Newborough Primary School. The court heard Farmer put his fingers inside one victim's pants every day for two terms, even when she was showing her work to the rest of the class. A victim impact statement read to the court revealed another victim felt so guilty and ashamed about being abused by Farmer that she was unable to speak about what happened, even when asked by her mother. The victim said her mother had come to her 'in a panic' after first hearing about Farmer's offending. 'She said 'he didn't do anything to you, did he?,' she wrote. 'I told her no. 'I didn't want to disappoint her or make her upset.' In a cruel twist, the victim revealed Farmer had taught the class songs including John Farnham's You're the Voice. 'It now makes me cringe,' she said of learning the lyrics. 'I didn't feel like I had a voice.' The victim said she had not spoken about the abuse until she was contacted by police after one of his former students, now aged in their 40s, reported Farmer. She had assumed action had been taken and felt 'deeply guilty' and 'physically sick' that Farmer was not held accountable for his actions until now. 'I still carry the weight of what that assumption may have meant for others.' Farmer's offending ended when someone working nearby saw him taking his hands out of a student's pants and reported him to the school He was banned from the school but returned to leave notes and gifts for students before he officially resigned. Farmer headed north after leaving Newborough Primary School and was arrested in Queensland in 2022 after his offending was reported to police by a former student. Judge Geoffrey Chettle said Farmer's offending caused 'significant and irreparable psychological damage' to his 'young, fragile, innocent' victims. He said the victims had suffered PTSD, severe depression, anxiety and insomnia and felt shame and fear. 'The damage you caused these children has ruined their lives,' Judge Chettle said. 'You enjoyed life in the Queensland sunshine while your victims endured years of distress.' The court heard Farmer was suffering from a pedophilic disorder at the time of his offending. However, Farmer's 'pedophilic interest had declined' with his age and he was now a 'low risk' of recidivism. Judge Chettle took into account Farmer's guilty plea and 'genuine remorse' when sentencing him to six and half years jail with a non parol period of four and half years, minus 103 days served in pre-sentence detention.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Paedophile teacher Peter Jeffrey Farmer jailed for historic sexual assault
A paedophile primary school teacher who fled Victoria after he was caught has been jailed. Peter Jeffrey Farmer, 66, pleaded guilty earlier this year to 10 sexual assault and gross indecency charges, 30 years after his crimes. The charges related to offending between 1986 and 1988. Judge Geoffrey Chettle on Tuesday sentenced Farmer to six-and-a-half years in prison, with a four-and-a-half-year non-parole period. Farmer was a teacher at a primary school in the Gippsland town of Newborough near Moe, when a resident alerted the school that she had seen him acting oddly with children on the school oval. He resigned and despite being told not to enter school grounds, he left notes and presents for his victims at the school, before fleeing Victoria. His victims were about eight years old at the time. Survivors of his assaults delivered victim impact statements to the court in April, detailing lives marred with memories of his offending. "You were a paedophile," Judge Geoffrey Chettle said during sentencing in the Victorian County Court sitting in Bairnsdale on Tuesday. The court heard an investigation ensued after a victim came forward to the Latrobe Valley Sexual Offences and Child Investigations Team in 2019. Farmer was arrested at his Queensland home in September 2022. "Your offending was extensive, repetitive, and each offence involved a serious breach of trust," Judge Chettle said on Friday. "Trust of the community, trust of the parents for their children, trust that you would care for them and not molest them." Farmer's victims watched on as Judge Chettle handed down his sentence. "Your victims were young, fragile and innocent. They were girls," Judge Chettle said. "You have offended against your victim in the presence of other female students." Paraphrasing a report by an expert witness, Judge Chettle told the court Farmer's age reduced his risk of offending. "Your age has seen your paedophilic interest decline," he said. Farmer was set to be sentenced in April, via videolink, but the prison in which he was held could not get the link to work. It was adjourned until Friday, when he was brought from prison to the County Court in Bairnsdale to be sentenced in person.
