A former music teacher from Sydney’s southwest has been cleared of sexual touching and indecent assaulting his students, with an appeal court finding the touching was not of a sexual nature.
A former music teacher from Sydney’s southwest has been cleared of sexual touching and indecent assaulting his students, with an appeal court finding the touching was not of a sexual nature.
Ulf Werner Astleitner-Kaiser, 66 of Mittagong, had his appeal heard at Penrith District Court after previously being convicted of one count of intentionally sexually touching a child and three counts of indecent assaulting a person under the age of 16 years.
In January last year, Astleitner-Kaiser was sentenced to four three-year community correction orders.
In a statement given to police in 2020 Astleitner-Kaiser admitted to touching his students in a non-sexual way “in the process of musician instruction” and “in hindsight regretted it” but maintained it was in the context of helping with finger placement when teaching violin and piano as well as the occasional pat on the back for encouragement.
On Wednesday, Judge Sophie Beckett noted “a high level of similarity and generality in the students allegations”, taking into account there was a possibility of any discussion between students having “contaminated” their individual accounts.
Judge Beckett said she was not satisfied the previous magistrate had adequately considered the “plausibility” of there being some concoction or collaboration occurring between the students.
Ms Beckett also found evidence given by a former colleague of Astleitner-Kaiser that one of the students had admitted to lying about certain allegations had been “given less weight than it deserved”.
In handing down her judgment, Judge Beckett said she was not satisfied the previous magistrate had engaged correct determination of whether the touching was sexual and ruled she “could not find there was a sexual connotation to the touching”.
“While the tendency to touch students on parts of their hands or bodies during the course of teaching or instructing may be considered inappropriate in the modern school environment it is not quite the same as being indecent in law,” Judge Beckett said.
Ulf Werner Astleitner-Kaiser’s appeal was upheld in Penrith District Court with his convictions quashed and sentence overturned.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/macarthur/ulf-astleitnerkaiser-successfully-appeals-conviction-for-sexual-touching-indecent-assault/news-story/7adec5e10de588d62bc7402b159b103c