Former Warrnambool teacher pleads guilty to historic child sex offence

Terrence Ward, now 77, was found guilty by a Melbourne County Court jury earlier this year of sexual offending against a girl in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The offences included five counts of sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16 years, four counts of indecent assault, three counts of gross indecency and one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

The offending happened in Warrnambool where Ward lived at the time, and when the girl was aged between 11 and 14.

The man was jailed in June for five years with a non-parole period of two years and three months.

Then on Monday, October 9, the man appeared in the same court where he pleaded guilty to one charge of indecent assault.

The court heard that offending also occurred between 1989 and 1990 and involved the trial victim's sister, who was aged 10.

The man, who was aged in his 40s at the time, pulled the girl onto his knee and rocked her back and forward over his groin.

The court heard the girl made a complaint shortly after her 12^th birthday.

Judge Gerard Mullaly said the offending was separated when Ward stood trial earlier in 2023, leading to "real issues" in terms of totality - which operates to ensure a sentence reflects the overall criminality, rather than a penalty for each offence.

He said the circumstances of the indecent assault were "very similar" to the offending that went to trial, although did not involve penetration, which were "self-evidently more severe".

"That said, any deviant sexual offending against a young child is abhorrent," the judge said.

The court heard Ward suffered advanced diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and was in protective custody in jail due to the nature of his offending.

The judge said the man had also committed serious sexual offending in 1981 and 1987 and was sentenced in 1994 to more than two years' jail.

Upon his release, the man underwent a sex offender treatment program and has not re-offended since.

The judge sentenced him over the indecent assault to two months' jail, which was wholly suspended.

Suspended sentences are no longer available in Victoria but were available at the time the indecent assault took place.

The court heard Ward was a plumbing teacher in Warrnambool between 1975 and 1993. The offending did not relate to that role.

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