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GAVIN Maxwell Hopper and Karen Louise Ellis are both sexual predators who had carnal relationships with young people in their care. They both taught, physical education and seriously breached the bond of trust that should exist between a teacher and a pupil. Hopper, 48, seduced a 14-year-old girl for several years in the 1980s, and Ellis last year had a brief affair with a 15-year-old boy. But while Hopper was jailed in August for 3 1/2yrs with a minimum term of two years and three months Ellis, 37, yesterday walked free from the court. Sentencing Ellis to a 22-month suspended jail term, Judge John Smallwood said no comparison could be made with the Hopper case. No two cases are the same in the eyes of the law but the differences between Hopper and Ellis were marked and had little to do with the gender of their victims. Ellis was not treated more leniently than Hopper because she had sex with a boy who seemed happy about it. According to the evidence in his trial, Judge Graeme Crossley's sentencing remarks and other evidence that has come to light, Hopper was a cunning sexual hunter who sought out young girls to seduce. He was notorious at Wesley College for his attraction to young girls and his predatory behaviour. Judge Crossley noted Hopper had no remorse. He played his victim along, enmeshed her in a suffocating relationship from which she felt she could not escape and shattered her emotionally. Ellis' relationship with the boy was in some senses naive. They went to movies like an ordinary couple and held hands. Ellis and the boy had sex, at her North Eltham home in a six-week period She behaved like a teenager and bombarded him with SMS messages like he was her boyfriend. The law also gives generous sentencing discounts for people prepared to admit their guilt. Hopper denied all knowledge of the sexual relationship with his victim, tried to paint her as deranged and made her go through a harrowing County Court trial. Judge Crossley said Hopper's offending brought about a significant change in his victim's personality and led to years of psychological problems for her. He criticised the young girl's figure and she developed an eating disorder striving to please her demanding and domineering lover. Unlike Hopper, Ellis admitted her offending at the earliest opportunity und pleaded guilty to all the charges against, her. The mother of three admitted the affair was her fault and not the boy's. A sexual relationship between a teacher and a pupil was wrong, she said. Ellis knows her suspended sentence means if she offends again she will go straight to jail and, unlike Hopper, she had some remorse. Although it was not the most important consideration in her sentence, the fact her victim did not believe he was a victim was important. The boy said he was not scarred by the affair and he regarded Ellis as the victim. Hopper is a sleazy man who used his victim like a puppet, destroyed her youth, robbed her of her confidence and lied and connived to cover it up. Ellis is a foolish woman who romantically attached herself to a boy less than half her age. She abused his trust but not in a deeply nasty way like Hopper. She also knew she was wrong and admitted her guilt. That's why Hopper went to jail and Ellis walked free. Herald Sun (11-11-2004) Norrie Ross |
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