- Joined
- Dec 14, 2012
- Location
- Australia
High School Teacher sentenced to sixty year's jail in sordid Schoolgirl sex case.
A High-School teacher who had repeated sexual relations with a student, has cried in the dock after being sentenced to sixty year's imprisonment.
Warren Trudeau, 37, had pleaded guilty to twelve counts of sexual penetration of a 16-year-old under his care, and not guilty to one count each of rape and deprivation of liberty, after having sex with the teenage girl on numerous occasions. A jury of his peers found him guilty on all counts.
Judge Peter Kidd, when handing down the sentence, said that it needed to be significant enough to deter others, particularly teachers, from engaging in such crimes.
"As the victim's teacher, you occupied a significant position of authority and trust in the community with respect to your students," Judge Kidd said. "The community is entitled to have confidence in the very significant trust placed in our teachers with our children."
Trudeau had given her his mobile phone number, telling her she could call him 24 hours a day, and they began text messaging each other. They began an emotional relationship, and later had sex at his marital home, hotels or his car on at least twelve occasions. He had picked up the teenager in his car, waited for her to change out of her school uniform and took her to his home, high-end hotels or restaurants.
Defence barrister Ian Hill, previously told the court Trudeau had been going through marital problems when he offended, and thought he was in love with her. The teacher had a "deluded fantasy" that he could maintain the relationship with the student. The Prosecution argued, that, when she attempted to end the relationship, he snapped, and, brutally raped her at knifepoint in his home, telling the victim, "If I can't have you, no-one else will", before she managed to escape, and call authorities.
The sixteen year old victim, whom the Judge praised as a "brave, decent, and honest young woman" for her testimony, will be provided with ongoing trauma counseling, paid for by the exclusive private school of which she remains a student. The school claimed to have had no knowledge of the incident.
Doctor Ellis McHugh threw the copy of The Times onto his desk, and sighed. A thirty-seven year old man, one year younger than he, and a sixteen year old girl? It was morally wrong by societal standards, but as a Psychologist, and a male, he could smypathise with the attraction to youth and beauty. But rape? What kind of psychosis and delusional mind would lead a man who, by all accounts was well-liked by his students, and had no prior history of violence, sexual assault, or criminal record, not even a parking ticket, to rape a teenager?
He guessed he'd never know, as that was now the concern of the prison system, and he was more worried about the damage being taken advantage of and sexually brutalised by a man employed to teach and protect her, had done to a sixteen year old girl. A brave young woman indeed, able to remain strong in the face of the Defence Attorney's attempt to shift the blame to her - it was that, when he'd read the court transcripts, which had sickened him above all else -, but was she strong enough not to allow it to ruin the rest of her life. Even with his professional help.
Emily Harris, her name was, although it had been suppressed at the trial, and she was his next client, hence McHugh's access to the details. As the son-in-law of a prominent supreme-court judge, Ellis was at the top of the list for court-ordered referrals. When the intercom buzzed in the plush office attached to his palatial home, the six-foot, one-inch tall Doctor, smoothed down a mop of sandy-brown hair, adjusted his spectacles, and slipped the newspaper article into the top drawer of his desk. "Send her in."
After he released the intercom button, McHugh relaxed his lanky frame in the leather chair, planted a benign expression on his friendly, open face, and raised a pair of blue eyes to watch the colourful fish swim around in the glass-walled aquarium that separated his counseling suite from reception, allowing for patient privacy. Uncertain of what to expect in regards to Emily's emotional state, or willingness to talk of the trauma she'd endured, he wanted to appear as non-threatening as possible.
A High-School teacher who had repeated sexual relations with a student, has cried in the dock after being sentenced to sixty year's imprisonment.
Warren Trudeau, 37, had pleaded guilty to twelve counts of sexual penetration of a 16-year-old under his care, and not guilty to one count each of rape and deprivation of liberty, after having sex with the teenage girl on numerous occasions. A jury of his peers found him guilty on all counts.
Judge Peter Kidd, when handing down the sentence, said that it needed to be significant enough to deter others, particularly teachers, from engaging in such crimes.
"As the victim's teacher, you occupied a significant position of authority and trust in the community with respect to your students," Judge Kidd said. "The community is entitled to have confidence in the very significant trust placed in our teachers with our children."
Trudeau had given her his mobile phone number, telling her she could call him 24 hours a day, and they began text messaging each other. They began an emotional relationship, and later had sex at his marital home, hotels or his car on at least twelve occasions. He had picked up the teenager in his car, waited for her to change out of her school uniform and took her to his home, high-end hotels or restaurants.
Defence barrister Ian Hill, previously told the court Trudeau had been going through marital problems when he offended, and thought he was in love with her. The teacher had a "deluded fantasy" that he could maintain the relationship with the student. The Prosecution argued, that, when she attempted to end the relationship, he snapped, and, brutally raped her at knifepoint in his home, telling the victim, "If I can't have you, no-one else will", before she managed to escape, and call authorities.
The sixteen year old victim, whom the Judge praised as a "brave, decent, and honest young woman" for her testimony, will be provided with ongoing trauma counseling, paid for by the exclusive private school of which she remains a student. The school claimed to have had no knowledge of the incident.
Doctor Ellis McHugh threw the copy of The Times onto his desk, and sighed. A thirty-seven year old man, one year younger than he, and a sixteen year old girl? It was morally wrong by societal standards, but as a Psychologist, and a male, he could smypathise with the attraction to youth and beauty. But rape? What kind of psychosis and delusional mind would lead a man who, by all accounts was well-liked by his students, and had no prior history of violence, sexual assault, or criminal record, not even a parking ticket, to rape a teenager?
He guessed he'd never know, as that was now the concern of the prison system, and he was more worried about the damage being taken advantage of and sexually brutalised by a man employed to teach and protect her, had done to a sixteen year old girl. A brave young woman indeed, able to remain strong in the face of the Defence Attorney's attempt to shift the blame to her - it was that, when he'd read the court transcripts, which had sickened him above all else -, but was she strong enough not to allow it to ruin the rest of her life. Even with his professional help.
Emily Harris, her name was, although it had been suppressed at the trial, and she was his next client, hence McHugh's access to the details. As the son-in-law of a prominent supreme-court judge, Ellis was at the top of the list for court-ordered referrals. When the intercom buzzed in the plush office attached to his palatial home, the six-foot, one-inch tall Doctor, smoothed down a mop of sandy-brown hair, adjusted his spectacles, and slipped the newspaper article into the top drawer of his desk. "Send her in."
After he released the intercom button, McHugh relaxed his lanky frame in the leather chair, planted a benign expression on his friendly, open face, and raised a pair of blue eyes to watch the colourful fish swim around in the glass-walled aquarium that separated his counseling suite from reception, allowing for patient privacy. Uncertain of what to expect in regards to Emily's emotional state, or willingness to talk of the trauma she'd endured, he wanted to appear as non-threatening as possible.