Drama teacher sentenced for abusing students
CW: The following article contains explicit details of sexual abuse of minors.
A head drama teacher in Australia, who was convicted of sexually touching two students before being caught with almost 18,000 abuse files involving children, has been sentenced to jail.
Aaron Wormald was formerly the head of creative arts at Jamison High School in Sydney’s west. He was fired in 2022 after his “inappropriate” conduct with three students was reported to police. One of the victims accused Wormald of sexually abusing her during an after-school class.
He has been sentenced to a minimum of seven years and three months in jail.
The court heard how, during the after-school class, Worwald instructed the young girl to try on a costume that was too large for her. He then demanded she “drop it,” exposing her bra and underwear. He then pulled it back up over her body while touching her waist and breasts.
Another victim was touched on the waist and breasts by Wormald after he kissed her on the forehead in front of another teacher while congratulating her on her performance in a play.
Later, he pulled her in to kiss her again before asking her to collect his lunch order from the canteen.
The third victim had to get Wormald to sign a form to drop his class. The court heard how Wormald pulled her towards him so she was “almost sitting on him” and held her with force, asking: “You’re not dropping it because of me, are you?”
She also told police Wormald asked about her partner’s penis size and would talk about sex and nudity in class “almost every day.”
The court also heard how Wormald created multiple fake social media accounts to elicit sexual material from both young girls and boys.
In one case, Wormald convinced a 12-year-old girl to send explicit images of herself via Snapchat.
He told another 14-year-old victim that he was a “good artist” and asked her to “send nudes” so he could sketch her.
During a search of his home, police found a total 17,693 child abuse images and videos across various electronic devices. The videos involved children as young as nine being sexually assaulted by adult men.
In handing down his sentence in the NSW District Court on Thursday, Judge Graham Turnbull SC called his offending “appalling”.
He was given a total non-parole term of imprisonment of seven years and three months, with a head sentence of 11 years and eight months. The sentence will be backdated to June 29, 2022, when he was first taken into custody. He will be first eligible for parole on September 29, 2029 with his full term to expire on February 29, 2034.