‘Incredible shock’ at sexual offending by beloved teacher
Damian Patrick Young was known as a talented, passionate teacher with compassion for his students, who he went above and beyond for.
At the same time, he dedicated his life outside school to continuing to help young people, working with foster care organisations and as a regional manager for the Camp Quality charity – aimed at providing children with cancer a happy, fun filled life. He’s now a convicted sex offender. The 56-year-old was sentenced to two years, seven months’ imprisonment at the Christchurch District Court in June for sexually abusing three of his pupils. Each of the girls, aged between 6 and 8, said Young was their favourite teacher.
His high energy, fun and trustworthy reputation made him the favourite teacher of a lot of pupils. As deputy principal at St Paul’s Catholic School in Dallington, he was credited with helping keep the community together during a difficult time after losing their school in the earthquakes.
But it was there, and at a second Christchurch school which cannot be named, the married man carried out heinous acts and kept dark secrets.
Under the guise of watching movies and turning the lights down in his classrooms, Young waited until everyone in the room was distracted by what was on the screen before making his way over to the girls and touching them on and around their private parts under their clothes.
For two of the girls, the incidents weren’t isolated.
Young faced 10 charges of indecent assault, two of which were representative. He denied any wrongdoing and went to trial in front of a jury. They convicted him of six of the charges, including the two representatives. The jury heard a wealth of evidence during the trial, including directly from the girls. Young himself took the stand and maintained his innocence. The parents who made complaints against him also testified.
Teachers, former teachers and colleagues gave evidence in his defence, speaking of the lack of opportunity for him to offend.
They also spoke to Young’s character. He was a good man. A teacher who engendered respect not only from colleagues, but also from the children he taught, they said.
The strength of the evidence against him was that one of the girls did not know the other two. They had never been to the same school and never had contact with one another.
Yet, they gave strikingly similar evidence as to what had happened to them.
The girls told the jury that Young was their favourite teacher. What he did to them was confronting. It was confusing. It was uninvited and it was frightening, they said.
For one of them, it hurt. She did not know how to deal with what he was doing.
A former student of Young’s, now an adult, told The Press he was “incredibly shocked” to hear of his offending.
During his time at school, Young was many of his classmates’ favourite teacher, he said. “I never would’ve thought he would be capable of this.”
Young voluntarily relinquished his teaching practising certificate after the police began investigating him. Despite still denying his offending, he had since offered $2000 each to his victims, not as remorse, but for the stress they were placed under as a result of the court process, his lawyer Kerry Cook said.
There was no suggestion any of Young’s offending occurred within his roles at Camp Quality or the various foster care or community-based groups he worked with.
Young grew up and has lived his life within the Catholic faith. He is also a cancer survivor.
These details can be reported for the first time after Judge Jane Farish’s sentencing notes, including an extensive summary of the case, were released to The Press.
“All three of these girls were highly vulnerable … [you were] someone who they should have felt safe with and looked to for security,” Judge Farish said.
“You also breached (the) trust (of) the parents who allowed you to have permission to care for their children…(and) your other colleagues who trusted you to be like they are, good people trying to do their best to ensure that these young people grow up in a good and positive way.”
It was not just the direct impact on the girls, but also the guilt their parents felt from simply sending their children to school, the judge said. “A parent should never feel worried about sending their child to school and then doubting that they sent the child to school to somebody who is going to abuse them.
“They were in a classroom. They were pupils or students with you having a high degree of control over the environment and over what they could or could not do.”
The years of Young’s offending cannot be reported to protect the identity of his victims.