A school teacher who made a late-night phone call to a student and groomed her for sex will spend another nine months behind bars.
Vasilious Kafataris, 57, was unsuccessful in his bid to avoid being sent back to jail in Downing Centre District Court in Sydney on Thursday after he argued the six months he spent on remand were punishment enough.
The former teacher was found guilty this year by a jury of grooming a 15-year-old student for sex in 2014.
He also admitted to the repeated sexual touching of a different student seven years later.
As part of the grooming, Kafataris phoned the student late at night and slapped his genitals on a countertop while asking the victim to touch herself.
Judge Phillip Mahony rejected Kafataris’ argument that the offending was less serious because he did not teach the student directly, saying he supervised her in sport and after-school workshops.
“The offender provided the victim with gifts like cigarettes … and $50 notes,” Judge Mahony said.
The sexual touching offences relate to a 17-year-old student he kissed twice on the lips outside of school, whom Kafataris denied was romantic.
Under questioning by Crown Prosecutor Georgina Namat, he said kissing his student hello and goodbye was “cultural” and he did not know it was illegal.
The judge rejected his argument that both incidents were “just a kiss”, saying in one, he called the victim back to him as she was walking away.
Kafataris’ struggle to deal with significant grief was relevant to the sexual touching offences, but not the grooming charge, as most of his bereavements occurred after the grooming took place, the judge said.
The 57-year-old’s lawyer argued his client should not be sent to jail because he had already spent six months on remand waiting for trial, which he described as “the worst six months of my life”.
But the age gap of more than 30 years between him and his victims and the breach in trust between the teacher and his students meant only prison time was an appropriate punishment, the judge said.
Kafataris was sentenced to a 15-month non-parole period backdated to April and will be eligible for release in July 2026.
For the sexual touching offences, he was sentenced to an 11-month community corrections order.
