Former Geelong Grammar School Teacher Jailed for Sex Abuse
By Adam Cooper
A former Geelong Grammar housemaster, who was also renowned among Australia's arts community, has been jailed for seven-and-half-years for sexually abusing six boys in his care more than three decades ago. As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse continued its focus on the prestigious school in the Victorian County Court building on Friday, John Hamilton Buckley sat in another court room as judge Jane Patrick condemned his "disgraceful" and "predatory" offending. Buckley sexually abused six boys aged between 10 and 13 between 1980 and 1983, when he was a teacher and housemaster at Geelong Grammar's junior school Glamorgan in Toorak. Among his victims were two brothers, another boy who was indecently assaulted while in the sick bay and another who was told to pretend Buckley was Bo Derek and to "make love" to him. Buckley used pornographic material, dinners outside the campus and a card game similar to strip poker to manipulate the boys before offending. The parents of one of his victims notified the school's principal at the time, the court heard, but nothing came of the complaint. It was not until June 2013 that he was arrested. Now 74, Buckley established a career in the arts after leaving Geelong Grammar. He was the inaugural director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and socialised with the likes of Andy Warhol and Madonna, and was working as an arts consultant when taken into custody in July. Judge Patrick, in imposing a minimum jail term of four years and nine months, said Buckley took advantage of children who were vulnerable because of their age, and exploited their normal interest in sexual matters for his own gratification. "You grossly betrayed the trust of these children and their parents," she said. "Your behaviour was disgraceful, repeated, predatory, often planned and extremely serious, both in what you did and the context in which you did it. Your moral culpability is very high." The court heard Buckley initially denied his offending to police when arrested, although he conceded he discussed sex with the boys when he was their housemaster. He later pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault on a male, three of indecent assault, three of gross indecency and single counts of sexual penetration with a person aged between 10 and 16 and possessing child pornography, the latter related to the discovery at his holiday home of 96 photographs of the boys. Judge Patrick said victim impact statements were powerful, moving and outlined the "terrible harm that child abuse such as this causes". She said Buckley would have known at the time what he was doing was wrong, but justified his crimes to himself and then minimised his actions to police, although he now understood the impact on his victims. Judge Patrick took into account Buckley's guilty plea and the loss of standing among his colleagues and friends, and conceded prison would be more onerous given his age and health issues and because of that he would serve time in protection. Buckley, who also taught at Geelong Grammar's Corio campus in the 1960s, has already served 53 days in custody.
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