EX JOEYS TEACHER GUILTY OF ABUSE AGAIN
Former teacher pleads guilty to indecent assault of student
A FORMER St Joseph’s College student says he will “never forgive” the Geelong teacher who indecently assaulted him in the early 1970s and stole his childhood.
Alan Edward Swingler, 76, worked at the school from 1966-1985, and was jailed in 1995 after being found guilty of sex offences against four students from 1968-1979.
Geelong County Court heard yesterday a new victim came forward last year, alleging he was forced to masturbate the teacher in an empty classroom when he was a student at the school in the early ’70s, and that Swingler also touched him on the penis multiple times.
The offences all happened while the student was in Years 7, 8 and 9, starting in 1970, the year Swingler got married. The victim said the teacher repeatedly threatened he would be in “huge trouble” if he told his parents or the school.
“Swingler stole my innocence, my trust in my teachers, my love of school and my self-esteem. In short, he stole my childhood and my belief in the goodness of all people,” the man, now in his late 50s, wrote in his victim impact statement.
“His betrayal of both mine and my family’s trust was total and complete, and for that, I can never forgive him.”
Swingler pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of indecently assaulting the teenage victim, and will likely be sentenced next month.
Now living in Torquay, the man was “deeply ashamed of his actions back in that part of his life”, and was a good prospect of rehabilitation, defence lawyer Rosalind Avis said.
She explained the defendant grew up in the care of Christian Brothers institutions in the 1940s and 1950s after he and his brother were forcibly taken from their teenage mother who’d given birth out of wedlock.
Ms Avis said Swingler was abused while in Catholic care, and this should be considered as context for his offending, but not an excuse.
“There’s no excuse for his behaviour,” she said, adding that Swingler offered the “deepest apology” to his victim, and co-operated with police once the allegations were made.
Swingler taught technical drawing and coached the Form 3 football team at the school when the victim was there.
Judge Irene Lawson was told Swingler was convicted in 1995 on nine counts of indecent assault, one of buggery and four of gross indecency.
The four victims were all St Joseph’s students he taught in the late ’60s and ’70s.
He was originally sentenced to a seven-year jail term, with non-parole period of five years, but had his stretch reduced to five years and 11 months on appeal, and got parole after about four years.
Judge Lawson is considering putting the man on a suspended sentence, but has first sought official proof that he completed a sex offender treatment program while in jail in the late 1990s.
The defendant’s good character since leaving prison, and the fact the offences were committed during the same period as the crimes for which he was previously jailed, were presented by Ms Avis among reasons he should avoid another custodial sentence.