Former Ballarat High School teacher to spend years behind bars for assault

Damien Woods, 46, who had a career as a music teacher spanning more than two decades, faced County Court in Ballarat on Friday, February 23 after pleading guilty to numerous sexual assault charges earlier in February.

The 12 charges included sexual assault with a child 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority, encouraging sexual activity with a child, possession of child abuse material and sexual penetration of a child 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority.

The victim and her family were present in the court gallery.

Judge Kellie Blair handed down the sentence, stating she found Woods was genuinely remorseful and had a "low to moderate risk of re-offending".

Judge Blair said the charges were serious sex offences and this would reflect in the sentence.

Judge Blair said the abuse had a "profound affect on the victim".

"It's had a heavy toll on the victim's mental health," she said.

"She's moved to Melbourne to escape Ballarat."

Woods will spend at least two years in prison for his prolonged period of sexual abuse towards his former student.

His total sentence was four years and two months with a non-parole period of two years and four months.

Woods will be on the sex offender registry and report for the rest of his life.

As Judge Blair read out the charges and incidents which occurred over 2022, the victim's father was in tears along with other people in the court.

Woods had started as a teacher and private piano teacher to the victim in 2017, when she was 12-years-old.

Having the victim's personal number to organise lessons, Woods and the victim would message each other and in 2018, the victim and Woods would discuss the victim's mental health issues and issues of self-harm.

The victim would see Woods as someone she could turn to for emotional support.

In 2019, Woods would hug the victim at school and would say " we probably shouldn't do this but I love hugs" and touch her waist.

In 2020, they would text nightly, sending personal updates and then in 2021, they started sending selfies to each other.

Woods would tell the victim she was "really beautiful".

In June 2021, Woods would send a message about how he "slept naked".

Things continued to escalate in 2022, when the victim was 17, Woods would ask the victim sexually explicit questions.

Sexualised conversations occurred between August 1 2022 and September 26, 2022.

There were more than 100,000 messages sent between Woods and the victim, including Woods requesting sexualised images.

During a forensic examination of the victim's laptop, 68 sexually explicit images were found.

Woods would also sit at the victim's work and watch her, the court heard.

The court heard Woods penetrated the victim multiple times, including occasions on the school grounds.

In December, while the victim and Woods continued to text, the victim began to distance herself and on the 23rd of the month, she told a friend about the abuse she had experienced.

On January 2, 2023, the victim told her mother about these instances with Woods, and the abuse was reported to police the next day.

Woods was arrested on January 19, 2023.

Affected by this story? There is help available.

You can phone the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, in Sebastopol, on 5320 3933, or free-call the crisis care line 24 hours on 1800 806 292.

Or phone Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380, or Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277.