SA teacher who sexually abused student has jail sentence doubled

South Australia’s Court of Criminal Appeal has doubled the sentence handed to a paedophile teacher who sexually abused his 13-year-old student in the early 1980s. 

In April, Christopher Wright Stain, 67, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail with a non-parole period of 14 months for persistent sexual exploitation. 

The District Court heard the offending took place while Stain was a teacher at a South Australian school and the victim was his student. 

Stain invited the teenager to a Friday night Bible study at his home and later began sexually abusing her on a regular basis. 

The offending only ended when the victim was 14 years old and she wrote a letter to Stain asking for him to leave her alone. 

On Thursday, the Court of Criminal Appeal found the original sentence handed to Stain was “manifestly inadequate” and re-sentenced Stain to six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years and six months. 

In their published judgment, Justice Trish Kelly, Justice Chris Bleby and Justice Malcolm Blue found the sentencing judge had erroneously concluded that Stain had not groomed his victim.  

“The judge appears to have given more weight to the ‘mitigating’ factors,” the court said. 

“The most significant example of this is the judge’s conclusion that there was no predation in the offending, which was based on the notion that the respondent was ‘in love’ with the complainant and therefore gave little thought to her age, the fact that he was abusing a position of trust and the distinct power imbalance between him and the complainant.” 

The court also found the sentencing judge had placed “too much emphasis on the delay between the offending and sentencing and the respondent’s remorse, contrition and rehabilitation”. 

“The judge has not taken into account that it is notorious that, in cases of sexual offending against young children, victims are often reluctant to come forward and make any complaint for many years after the offending,” the court said. 

“It is also not uncommon for offenders in these cases to have no other criminal history or to have resumed a ‘normal law-abiding life’ following the offending.

The court found the original sentence highlighted the need for judges to be properly educated on the impact of sexual abuse on victims. 

“We add that the judge’s sentencing remarks as a whole in this matter underscore the necessity for the continuing legal education of judges to ensure that they properly understand and appreciate the dynamics involved in the sexual predation of children, the profound harm caused to those children and the need to impose adequate punishment for these crimes.” 

Stain will be eligible for parole in October 2024.