A former teacher at one of Perth’s most prestigious girls’ schools is facing a jail term after being found guilty of sexually abusing students in the 1980s — six weeks after one of his colleagues and friends walked free from court after being cleared of similar allegations.
A District Court jury took four hours on Thursday to find 75-year-old Jay Walsh guilty of 20 charges of sexually abusing five students at Penrhos College when he worked there as a drama teacher in the 1980s.
He was found not guilty of a further three charges.
He had been on trial over the past two weeks accused of abusing the five students.
The abuse is alleged to have happened over five years between 1982 and 1987.
The youngest complainant said she was 13 and in Walsh's drama classes when she was abused.
Some of the victims, accompanied by other former Penrhos students, were in court for the verdicts.
Judge Gary Massey granted bail to Walsh because of what he called his "parlous" health conditions.
However, Judge Massey said the offences were extremely serious and his decision to grant him bail should not be seen as an indication of the sentence he will receive.
Abuse at different locations
His colleague, history teacher Harry Schmitz, 71, had faced two separate trials — one in December last year and the second in January — accused of abusing another two students.
Details of the allegations against Mr Schmitz had been suppressed until the completion of Walsh’s trial, but it can now be revealed he was found not guilty of all charges by the two District Court juries which presided over his cases.
The five women, who are now in their 50s, testified they were abused by Walsh at various locations, including on school grounds, in a motel room, in an apartment and in Walsh’s vehicle in car parks.
Two of the women, both of whom admitted having a crush on Walsh, alleged they had a sexual relationship with him that lasted for months.
Both also claimed they lost their virginity to him.
History teacher acquitted
A similar claim was made by two other former students who alleged they were abused by Mr Schmitz.
At the history teacher's first trial, the complainant claimed Mr Schmitz was helping out with a drama production she was involved in, when he took her to a motel room and abused her.
However, his barrister at that trial, David Edwardson KC, described the allegations as “bizarre and incredulous” and the jury deliberated for about two hours before acquitting him of both charges he faced.
At Mr Schmitz’s second trial, another former student testified she was repeatedly abused by Mr Schmitz in years 11 and 12 after he started to pay her attention when she was 14.
She told the court that while she did tell a friend about what was happening, she did not report it to the school because she believed she would be expelled.
She also testified that on one occasion, a friend sat in the room and watched Mr Schmitz having sex with her.
Mr Schmitz did not elect to give evidence at either of his trials, but in a video interview with police in 2020, he denied ever having any sexual contact with any Penrhos student.
'Did not happen': drama teacher
Walsh did elect to testify at his trial and, under oath, maintained the sexual abuse just did not happen.
Walsh’s defence lawyer, Judith Fordham, highlighted that the allegations dated back to between 34 and 41 years ago, and said over time, people sometimes ended up believing things that were not true.
“Memories can be genuinely held, but plain wrong,” Ms Fordham submitted to the jury.
“If you acquit, you are not saying the complainants are liars.”
Ms Fordham said none of the women had complained to anyone at the time about what was happening.
Mr Schmitz had run a similar defence case, with his legal team focusing on what they claimed was a lack of detail in the women’s allegations, including the second complainant being unable to recall specific dates and locations.
In his closing address to the jury, Mr Schmitz's barrister Tom Percy KC had described the second woman’s “whole story” as “leaking like a sieve”, and said that if the jury “opened the cupboard” for proof of what happened “it was almost bare”.
The jury in that second case returned its not guilty verdict to the four charges against Mr Schmitz after seeking a clarification from the judge on whether they could find him guilty, “based on whether … (they) believe a witness’s testimony but there is no other supporting evidence”.
Victims need to 'rescue each other'
Outside court, one of Walsh's victims said she was relieved by the verdict, and she urged any other victims of sexual abuse to come forward.
"It's not easy. It's not a kind, gentle system, but it's worth it and we need to rescue each other from what happened to us back then," she said.
She described her decision to come forward as "very, very difficult".
"Because I considered the impact on his family as well as mine, and as well as the whole community," she said.
"I just felt like it was the thing I had to do for everybody."
Royal commission catalyst
The men faced separate trials, despite them being charged at the same time in July 2020.
The court heard the catalyst for the charges was an email sent to the Penrhos community in 2018 by the then school principal, in light of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
That led to the complainants eventually going to police.
Walsh’s trial was aborted twice — firstly because of a legal issue and then because of a COVID outbreak.
The case was then rescheduled to this month although the complainants were not required to be called as witnesses at the new trial, because the evidence they gave last year was recorded and played to the jury.
