Rhiannon Koch, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

A former Kadina Memorial School teacher was confronted three times about his use of social media with students before he was arrested.

Thomas Ackland added students to photographic social media app Snapchat and issued them a set of rules, before sending innocuous images and conversations.

Over time, he progressed to sending photos of himself without a shirt, and conversed with students about personal matters, before sending sexually explicit messages and inviting students to do the same.

Mr Ackland was sentenced to 14 years in jail on 13 counts of aggravated communicating with the intention of making a child amenable to sexual activity and one of sexual abuse of a child, formerly known as maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child, in the District Court, Adelaide, on Friday, December 8.

The charges, regarding children as young as 12 and up to and beyond 18, span from 2017 to just a week before his arrest in March 2021.

In his sentencing, Judge Paul Muscat said Mr Ackland’s communication with students via social media first came to the attention of a staff member in 2018.

The staff member spoke to Mr Ackland about the safety protocols around communicating with students on social media.

In 2020, police received a Crime Stoppers report about Mr Ackland communicating inappropriately with students.

“The police spoke with the school and with you,” Judge Muscat said.

“Further, you told the police you were aware of the social media policies of the school with respect to student contact.

“In early 2021, you were confronted by two students about your behaviour toward others and to them.

“You denied being in contact with other students and said you would desist sending inappropriate messages to the two students who confronted you.

“So, at numerous points throughout the offending there were opportunities for you to reflect on your behaviour.

“Even after the conversation with the police, you continued to communicate inappropriately with students with whom you had already joined, but beyond that you joined with new students on Snapchat and commenced additional inappropriate communications with those students.

“This only serves to demonstrate your strong sexual interest in the students you chose to abuse.”

Thomas Ackland was arrested in 2021 after a student, who was not a victim himself, reported the behaviour.

“You betrayed the position of authority and trust reposed in you by the school, the parents of the students you abused and of course, the very students themselves, who you were responsible for teaching and providing pastoral care to and not grooming and then abusing them for your own sexual gratification,” Judge Paul Muscat said.

Judge Muscat said he didn’t accept Mr Ackland’s claim he was not in denial of his sexual orientation.

“You professed your behaviour toward the students was explicable as ‘stupidity’ on your behalf in what you accepted were inappropriate messages that you sent to them,” he said.

“I do not accept any of that either.

“It is clear to me on all of the available evidence before the court that you are, contrary to what you have stated to Mr Fugler (psychologist Alan Fugler), presently in denial regarding your sexuality and that you are sexually attracted to adolescent males.

“Your behaviour toward the students cannot be explained through mere stupidity as you asserted.

“It was much more sinister than that.

“A number of students observed you behave inappropriately in the classroom, making sexually inappropriate jokes and encouraging inappropriate talk amongst the male students.

“He (one student), like others, recalled a book kept in your classroom where he and other students recorded inappropriate things that were said in class.”

Judge Muscat set a non-parole period of 11 years, two months and 12 days, backdated to October 18, 2023, when Mr Ackland was remanded in custody.

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 12 December 2023.