Ex-NRL ref abused power, assaulted boys as principal
By LLOYD JONES
A former NRL referee abused his position of trust when he assaulted Indigenous students as a school principal, a judge has heard.
Gavin Morris is set to be sentenced after being found guilty of four counts of aggravated assault in Alice Springs, including an instance when he put a schoolboy in a choke hold.
Morris also painfully twisted the ears of students during his stint as Yipirinya School headmaster.
Gavin Morris is a former NRL referee who officiated in two finals games. (Colin Whelan/AAP PHOTOS)
The school is facing closure after it was placed under statutory management after an investigation by the NT government last year found “serious issues” with governance arrangements.
The Guardian newspaper has reported it is now facing the redundancies of 20 staff, which the school community has warned would cause the school to “collapse”.
Morris was appointed principal head at the Alice Springs independent school for Indigenous children in 2022.
Reports emerged of him assaulting boy students aged between eight and 13 in 2023, sparking a police investigation.
He was found guilty in October of four out of five counts of aggravated assault in Alice Springs Local Court.
Defence counsel John Wilson on Monday sought a non-custodial sentence, arguing Morris had no previous history of criminal offending during a lengthy teaching career and had a strong support network.
Morris had lost employment as a teacher, faced an unknown future and had a background of childhood deprivation marked by instability, alcohol abuse and violence, he said.
He was on anti-depressant medication given the mental stress of his situation including the prospect of incarceration, Mr Wilson said.
The offending was “an aberration that’s unlikely to ever be repeated”.
Appropriate sentence
“It’s open for Your Honour to find that an explanation for the offending was the pressure-cooker-type environment … and the challenges that came with being principal at that school,” Mr Wilson said.
He said an intensive corrections order including home detention and electronic monitoring would be an appropriate sentence.
Crown prosecutor James Moore said a suspended prison sentence was inadequate for the “grave breach of trust, authority and power”, and Morris’ “gross and disproportionate” overreaction to the schoolboys’ misbehaviour.
Gavin Morris during the round 16 NRL match between the Manly Sea Eagles and the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium, Sydney, in 2013.
The boys had experienced pain and fear, including in two cases feeling they could not breathe in the headmaster’s choke hold, the court was told.
Mr Moore noted the failure of Morris to plead guilty, the absence of any evidence of his planned rehabilitation and his apparent lack of remorse.
A significant period of imprisonment was warranted, he said.
Morris was found guilty of pulling a 12-year-old boy from a playground fight and putting him in a headlock that hurt him, constricted his breathing and made him feel afraid.
Sentence on Thursday
He also grabbed two young boys by the ears and painfully twisted them after they made a mess in a childcare centre.
Morris was also found guilty of choking a boy who had accessed a locked school hall with another student.
Morris called them “little black c***s”, with the boy saying he felt afraid he could not breathe.
He was found not guilty of a fifth charge in which he allegedly choked an 11-year-old boy in a classroom, with student witnesses saying Morris called them “black dogs”.
Judge Hopkins continued bail for Morris and will sentence him on Thursday.
Morris is appealing the guilty verdicts.
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