Allegations and convictions of historical child sexual abuse continue to emerge, with several former teachers across Australia facing serious charges.
This month’s news highlights three separate cases — from Sydney to the Latrobe Valley — where former educators stand accused of exploiting their positions of trust to commit horrific crimes against children.
The survivors’ stories, shared decades later, reveal the long-lasting impact of these abuses and the failures of institutions to act when it mattered most.
Former Sydney teacher convicted of child sexual abuse & described “a monster behind bars”
Michael Anthony Lunn, a former teacher at Vaucluse Public School in Sydney, has been convicted of three counts of sexual assault of a child and 10 counts of indecent assault, resulting in up to 10 years in prison. He was accused of over a dozen charges of sexual abuse against children in the 1980s.
Allegations involved fondling genitals, kissing students, and on one occasion, putting his penis near a boy’s mouth. He was also accused of sexually harassing and abusing a boy at a school camp.
In 2022, Lunn told police there was no “sexual nature” in his interactions with children, or “no sneaky little things”.
The Crown alleged Lunn used his reputation within the school to target children in the classroom and often involved them sitting on his lap or standing near him.
Lunn faced similar allegations and charges in the 1980s, which resulted in ‘not guilty’ verdicts.
He is now awaiting sentencing in June.
Disgraced teacher from Latrobe Valley pleads guilty to sexually assaulting five girls
Peter Jeffrey Farmer, a former teacher in the Latrobe Valley, has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault and gross indecency against five girls as young as eight years old in the 1980s.
Court documents stated that Farmer was told not to return to the school in 1988 after a local shopkeeper witnessed an incident on the school oval. Still, Farmer returned to the school and left notes and gifts in his students’ desks.
A police investigation was conducted, but the students’ parents did not want to put their girls through the court process at such a young age.
In court, survivors shared details of their lives, which have been filled with mistrust, mental illness, self-harm, drug addiction, and insomnia.
“Look at how my life has turned out since your despicable and illegal actions. I did not want to fall asleep because I would always have nightmares of what you did to me,” one survivor said.
“It’s heartbreaking to reflect on a childhood stolen from me, years which should have been filled with happy memories. For years, I carried this story in silence, terrified of how my community would view me if they knew of my connection to Peter Farmer’s crimes,” said another.
“There was and has not been a day passed that I have not thought about or felt the shadow of the sexual abuse inflicted on me in class by you, Peter Farmer… every single day since it happened 37 years ago. I had career aspirations and life goals that I wholeheartedly believe I would have fulfilled had I not experienced it,” said another.
The sentencing will be completed in June 2025.
Teacher claims there were no societal standards stopping her from having sex with students in the 1970s
Former teacher Helga Lam was arrested in 2021 for the alleged sexual abuse of four students in the 1970s. She now claims that even if it happened, societal standards in the 1970s did not prevent her from having sex with students.
NSW’s state barrister, David Lloyd SC, disagrees and has stated that teachers sleeping with students was still seen as “indecent” in the 1970s, and there is strong evidence to corroborate the survivors’ stories.
“She did owe that duty, and plainly, that duty was breached. How on earth it is said, on Mrs Lam’s case, that all of this is made up… is entirely unclear,” he said.
Lam has been accused of having sex with students in a staffroom, in classrooms, in her own home, and backstage during a production of Zorro. She also allegedly flirted with students at school and made inappropriate comments about their sexual activities.
One of the survivors claims Lam told him to climb out a window when his then-girlfriend walked in on them having sex in a classroom. Lam then allegedly threatened to have the girl expelled from school.
Another teacher also allegedly made a complaint about Lam to the Principal when they saw someone who looked like Lam embracing a student on her lap in the staffroom. The Principal dismissed their claims.
Hearings continue into Lam’s alleged crimes.
