A paedophilic primary school teacher has shown no remorse for robbing eight young children of their innocent childhoods, instead attempting to blame his victims.

For years, Michael Anthony Lunn exploited his position as a trusted and admired primary school teacher in Sydney’s eastern suburbs to sexually abuse eight children.

Aged between four and eight, Lunn singled out the children to prey on them, often inside the classroom.

A number of the boys and girls told the NSW District Court that Lunn would call them up to his desk, pull them into his lap and touch their genitals.

One pupil, who was seven at the time, described wearing a second pair of underpants over her tights in a bid to deter her teacher from molesting her – but to no avail.

“Good girl,” the court heard he told her afterwards.

Thinking about her thwarted attempt to protect herself now makes her cry, the former schoolgirl explained in an emotional victim impact statement.

Another told the court she would never be able to forget the “invasive and sinister” abuse, even though she was too young to understand what it meant at the time.

Lunn, now 71, faced sentencing for the historical sexual offences on Monday after a jury found him guilty of more than a dozen child sexual abuse offences in April.

But he refused to show any remorse, contrition, or insight into the consequences of his offending on his victims, Judge Paul McGuire told the court.

Instead Lunn accused the children of concocting the allegations for retribution and claimed they had dreamt about the sexual abuse, but couldn’t distinguish their dreams from reality.

Judge McGuire stressed the “very serious” nature of child sexual assault offences, which “rob children of their innocence and their childhood” and have lifelong consequences.

“Children are entitled to have adults give them protection and to not use them for their own perverse sexual gratification,” he said.

The judge noted Lunn had been a respected teacher at the primary school, a sacred position which he abused to get unrestricted and unsupervised access to the “extremely young” children.

“The offender was entrusted by the parents, the school, the Department of Education and the community with [the children’s] care and wellbeing,” he said.

“[He] egregiously breached that trust.”

His victims reported being scared about being reprimanded if they spoke up, or not being believed when they did.

Judge McGuire accepted the offences showed Lunn had a deviant sexual interest in pre-pubescent children, and determined he had a medium to average risk of committing further sexual offences.

He handed down a 19-and-a-half-year jail term, at least 12 years and three months of which Lunn will serve behind bars.

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)