Career adviser and resources teacher David Croxon has had his sentence cut in half after a court found the original judge had erred
A career adviser who molested one of his students in the school staff room when she wanted help with her resume has had his jail term cut virtually in half.
David Reginald Croxon, a teacher at Shoalhaven High School on the New South Wales south coast, was sentenced to 11 years and five months imprisonment last September.
But after an appeal, a court on Wednesday found the original judge had erred in accumulating Croxon’s sentence and hit him with a new jail term of five years and 11 months.
The new sentence was 52 per cent of his original term.
The court heard in December 2014 a teenage student asked Croxon for help compiling her resume for a summer holiday job.
The teacher was known for making his students toast as a ‘special treat’ and the 15-year-old asked him if she could have some.
The teacher brought her into the staff room when all the staff had left, popped the toaster on and shut the door.
‘DAVE SXY’: Croxon, pictured, later sent her an email saying: ‘Hey it’s Dave you did something naughty with last Friday’
As she buttered her bread, the court was told he came up behind her and groped her private parts.
After the young woman told him ‘no’ and went to leave, Croxon panicked and said: ‘I swear to God if you tell anyone I’ll kill myself, I’ll lose my kids and stuff, my house’.
But his indecent behaviour didn’t stop there.
The court heard during the school holidays Croxon sent her an email from an account titled ‘DAVE SXY’.
He wrote: ‘Hey it’s Dave you did something naughty with last Friday’.
And months later, back at school, he molested her again.
‘I know this is wrong but I just want a taste,’ he said.
He asked her to return to him next period, but she claimed she had a test – and ran crying to a friend.
The court heard the two students went to the deputy principal sobbing – with the victim expressing her fear that ‘no one will believe me’.
David Croxon’s victim (not pictured) believed her teacher was ‘well known and well liked’
Croxon was the career adviser and resources teacher at Shoalhaven High School
The victim had believed Croxon was ‘well known and well liked, because he was more like a kid who would joke and talk’.
The teacher pleaded guilty to charges of performing an indecent act and sexual intercourse in circumstances of aggravation.
In a pre-sentence report, he admitted what he did was ‘legally and morally wrong’ but claimed the victim would ‘come down and flirt with me’ before the offences.
The Appeals Court re-sentenced Croxon to a minimum four-and-a-half years behind bars, with an additional term of one year and five months.
He will be eligible for release on August 25, 2019.
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