Former Christ Church Grammar School Music Teacher Jailed for 12 Years
By Emily Moulton
A FORMER Christ Church Grammar School teacher who sexually abused a student nearly three decades ago was today jailed for 12 years. Access all Areas. $1 for the first 28 days. Only $2.95 a week thereafter. Learn more. Lindsay William Hutchinson, 63, who was the director of music at the exclusive Claremont boys' school from 1981 to 1985, was charged with a range of sexual offences, including the rape of his young victim, who was just 13 when the abuse began. He was jailed for 12 years for the sexual assault and rape of the boy. Hutchinson will be eligible for parole after 10 years. In handing down his sentence, District Court Judge Patrick O'Neal described Hutchinson as a "narcissistic" man who not only brutalised his victim over an 18-month to two year period but went to extraordinary lengths to create opportunities to satisfy his sexual desires, even admitting on the stand to choosing boys schools for that very reason. He said he did not believe Hutchinson's early guilty pleas to three of the 15 charges laid against him saying he thought they were motivated by a desire for a lesser sentence rather than remorse. He also said he thought a letter Hutchinson wrote to the victim and the court apologising for his acts was hollow. "Having seen you give evidence at trial I do not accept what you have said," Judge O'Neal said. Hutchinson subjected his victim to nearly two years of abuse including, on some occasions, very brutal acts of rape on music tours, school sleep-overs, in the school music room and even in his own home while his wife and baby daughter slept in the same house. Judge O'Neal said that while a psychiatric report prepared for the court said it did not find Hutchinson was a pedophile because his victims were young teenagers, by law they were still considered children. The report also assessed there was only a five to ten per cent chance Hutchinson would reoffend. However this was rejected by Judge O'Neal. He said he believed the risk was much "higher" than that. And while he took into account some of Hutchinson's personal background - it was revealed during trial that the former music teacher had been abused as a teenager by two men in his church - it was not an overriding factor, neither was his standing in his local community. "The fact that you appeared respectable is not remarkable, it's normal, that you have many accomplishments.... these served as part of your plan," the judge said. That plan, he said, was to be around young boys. Judge O'Neal said the music tours and sleep overs that took place during his years at Christ Church Grammar were not done out of some sense of duty but rather all part of his "plan" to get closer to his victims. During the trial it emerged Hutchinson also interfered with two other students and took photos of a few others for a fake speedo photo competition. It also emerged during the trial the former music teacher had been convicted of indecent assault against another male student in Adelaide during the 1990s as well as a boy in Durham, England in the 1970s. Both victims gave evidence at the trial in Perth. Judge O'Neal said while he took his age and the fact he would serve his time in WA away from his wife and children who are in Victoria, they were not big factors. He said the breach of trust and level of manipulation he used to get closer to his victims was of "concern" and that he did not believe he was genuinely remorseful.
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