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A ‘DISGRACED’ teacher has avoided prison after accepting conviction for sexually assaulting a pupil.
On Friday, 66-year-old David Baxter was ordered to pay £1,500 to the victim after withdrawing his appeal against conviction.
In April, Baxter, from Killadeas Road, Lisnarick, was convicted at Enniskillen Magistrates Court of sexually assaulting a student during his time as a teacher in Erne Integrated College in 2018.
The girl said that Baxter, a former leading member of Omagh Musical Society, made her sit on his knee and put his hand on her thigh in a storeroom after choir practice.
The appeal hearing began at the County Court in Omagh on Wednesday, where the court heard evidence from the victim over a four-hour hearing.
However, in a surprising turn of events, Baxter’s defence counsel, Grainne McAnaney, announced on Friday morning that the former teacher was withdrawing his appeal against conviction.
However, the hearing proceeded with an appeal against the four-month sentence, with Ms McAnaney stating that the offence falls to the ‘lower end of the scale’.
She noted Baxter’s good character, with no previous convictions, and lack of any offending since 2018 – alongside no breaches of bail between charge and appeal.
Ms McAnaney conceded, however, the ‘significant impact’ the offending has had on the victim and the position of trust Baxter held at the time.
In sentencing, her honour, judge Martina Connolly KC, said that Baxter’s offending brought ‘great shame and disgrace’ to himself, adding that she was ‘bewildered’ that a ‘well-educated’ teacher ended their career this way.
She said that a significant factor in this case was the breach of trust as the victim was a ‘vulnerable’ young woman who ‘should have been in a place she felt safe’.
However, Judge Connolly saw that there was ‘little purpose’ in sending Baxter to prison and imposed an 18-month probation order to give the disgraced teacher ‘some insight’ to his offending.
In addition, a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) was imposed for five years, which excludes contact with the victim and unsupervised contact with children.
Judge Connolly also ordered Baxter to pay the victim £1,500 in compensation, and placed him onto the sex offenders register for five years.
