Silver-tongued teacher with a perverse agenda

WHEN Alex* started high school, he was quickly won over by the fun-loving science teacher with a moustache like Burt Reynolds who could outrun any of the kids.

Silver-tongued, tall and friendly, Darrel George Harington was in his 20s and a talented sportsman when he started teaching at New Town High during the 1970s.

Naturally, Alex — just 12 years old — felt special when Harington started taking an interest in him.

“He was tall and he had dark wavy hair and he was strong and fit as well — he could outrun any of the kids and kick a football further than any of them,” Alex told the Mercury.

“He was just this superstrong, persuasive, confident human being who could talk to anyone, and that’s how I saw him and I wanted to be like him. I wished I could kick a football around and talk to people like that.”

Harington started turning up wherever Alex was. All of a sudden, he was in the school musical, trying to play clarinet in the school band, and “popping up all the time”.

“I thought I was a special kid, I really did,” Alex said.

Harington convinced “whoever he needed” to ensure Alex was in his class “so he could see me every morning”. “He would have easily got his way.”

The paedophile was also easily able to convince whoever he needed to let him take Alex away to his home or on holidays — and started sexually abusing him towards the end of the year. By the time he started grade eight, the bullying had begun. The other kids could see something was going on and life became “horrific” for Alex.

Alex said even the other teachers seemed to know. He pointed to one occasion where a fellow New Town High teacher told Alex “it was obvious that something was going on” and that the child “should do something about it”.

Alex kept his secret to himself for decades, until the royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse was held across Australia.

He reached out to police, and Harington was finally held accountable for his crimes. He was jailed in 2015 after admitting he’d molested Alex and eight other young boys.

But Alex still wants to know who in the state education department knew about Harington but did nothing to stop him.

“I just couldn’t get any answers. I want to know what is it that they’ve got to answer for? What did they know about me?” * Alex is not his real name.