51-year-old teacher begs teen student to give him oral sex 'right now', calls her 'drama queen' after arrest
An Australian public school teacher begged his teenage student to give him oral sex and then called her a "drama queen" after he was charged, a court heard.
Stuart Robert Van Dyken, 51, had been charged with having sexual intercourse with a child under his care in 2018 following an incident at the Strathfield South High School where he was formerly an environment teacher, according to the Daily Mail.
At his trial this past week, Sydney's Downing Centre District Court heard Van Dyken had asked his female pupil to give him oral sex "right now" after asking to meet her in an empty classroom.
The victim testified that she felt pressured to give in to his demands but couldn't follow through when he unbuttoned his pants. However, she said she couldn't escape the classroom either because the 51-year-old was standing between her and the doorway and that she ended up giving in.
After it was over, the court heard that Van Dyken pleaded with the victim to keep their interaction a secret because he did not want his life to be destroyed. "My life's in your hands," he allegedly told her. "My job's in your hands. You can't tell anything about this to anyone."
Van Dyken's inappropriate behavior reportedly extended beyond that particular incident. He was also accused of inappropriate behavior inside his classroom and is said to have created a "sexualized environment" for his students.
He would also comment on the size of one of the students' breasts, it was heard. Furthermore, police found photos of a girl in a locked application on his phone that only he had access to because no one else knew the code.
The 51-year-old denied all the allegations made against him and insisted he was innocent throughout the proceedings. He claimed the victim had made up the charges against him because she was angry he had given her a bad grade.
Addressing the oral sex incident, he conceded he met the victim in a classroom alone but that it was so he could help her with an assignment and not some illicit activity as she had alleged. He told the court that the victim was "delusional" and called her a "drama queen."
However, Downing Centre District Court Judge Penelope Hock dismissed his claims and said he was an unreliable witness before finding him guilty of having sexual intercourse with the teen.
Van Dyken is now facing up to eight years behind bars and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24.
The news of Van Dyken's impending sentencing comes a little over a year after another high-profile incident in Sydney saw a swimming teacher getting accused of sexually assaulting as many as eight different young girls in a span of three weeks.
Kyle Daniels, 20, had initially been accused of inappropriately touching a six-year-old girl and also having sexual intercourse with the victim's eight-year-old sister during swimming lessons at the Mosman Swim Center in Sydney's Lower North Shore, where he had been a casual instructor.
Investigators then said he had committed 31 sexual offenses, with court documents stating he committed a total of 14 acts of indecent assault in 2018, and that he sexually touched his victims on eight other occasions while teaching them to swim.