A FORMER North East man has avoided a prison term for molesting students.
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Alan Edward Swingler had attended Champagnat College in Wangaratta as a teenager and trained as a Marist Brother.
He then spent a year at a teachers’ college and a further 18 months teaching primary school students before moving down to Melbourne.
His offending took place at St Joseph’s College in Geelong, where he was a teacher.
Swingler targeted a boy at the school between June 1970 and June 1972, by groping his genitals.
The boy was aged between 12 and 14 at the time and the teacher was aged about 30.
He had questioned him on sexual topics inside a laboratory before groping him.
Other incidents involved similar offending, which Judge Irene Lawson noted had left the boy feeling “petrified, not knowing what was going on”.
“You told the victim he would be in trouble if he told anyone,” she told the County Court.
The victim didn’t tell anyone about what had occurred until 15 years ago and reported it to police 12 months ago.
Swingler was interviewed by police last April and confirmed what had occurred, but said it was hard to remember many of the details.
He couldn’t explain his behaviour but said he was ashamed of his past.
The now 76-year-old has been jailed for other historic sex offences which occurred between 1968 and 1979, involving multiple young victims aged 12 to 14.
He had married in 1970 and the County Court recently heard his wife and children remained supportive of him despite the offending.
Swingler is a registered sex offender for life.
Justice Lawson imposed a three-year suspended sentence on three counts of indecent assault.