A former teacher and rugby trainer has been sentenced to prison for sexual assaults against three boys spanning three decades.
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John Ernest Spinks, 86, was not present at the District Court in Dubbo in NSW on August 25, when his sentence was handed down for five historic sex offences against three different boys.
In the statement, read on his behalf at an earlier sentence hearing, one victim said the abuse he suffered at the hands of former Wagga teacher Spinks during a rugby trip during the 1990s destroyed his dream of being a rugby player.
"I used to get up at 2.30am in the morning to watch rugby union games on TV," he said.
"[After the abuse] I lost all interest in the sport and, instead of training, I'd sit across the river and watch everyone train as I drank and smoked."
Spinks took advantage of position of trust
The court heard that the boy went on a number of rugby trips in the central west in the early 1990s. At the time, Spinks was a strapper for his team and would help strap the boys' knees and ankles as needed.
On the boy's second trip, when no-one was around, Spinks asked him to sit down in front of the bus. Spinks sat next to him and began to rub his calves and his thighs. He then put his hand up the boy's pants and touched his genitals.
This happened on more than one occasion during the rugby trips and each instance lasted up to 10 minutes.
The victim told the court in the years following the abuse he stopped playing any sports and took more risks, getting into physical fights, drink-driving and using drugs.
He said when he was younger, he didn't really understand what the "driving force" behind his self-destructive behaviour was. Now, he recognises it was driven by "self-hatred" and a lack of care for himself, sparked by the abuse.
"It wasn't just me that was affected, but my parents, siblings and extended family. They had to deal with my outbursts... they didn't understand what was happening to me," he said.
"Some days, I would just sit and drink and stare off into the distance for hours at a time.
"It is something I think about every day... I am still trying to make sense of my life and what happened to me."
At the sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Brendan Queenan said that although the boy was not legally under Spinks' authority, he was still in a position of trust that he took advantage of.
"This is a junior team... the parents are entrusting their children to the adults and senior people on this trip. That would include the coach and the strapper," he said.
After a judge-alone trial which Spinks was unable to give evidence at due to his state of cognitive decline, on July 17, 2025, judge Troy Anderson found Spinks guilty of five historic sex offences
This included two counts of indecent assault on a male, two counts of aggravated indecent assault of a victim under the age of 16 and one count of buggery, historically an offence.
Earlier assaults in two other regional towns
As well as the rugby trip victim, he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two students in the 1970s and 1980s when he was a teacher.
"That access to boys during the day at school was something he was able to obtain because he had that position," Mr Queenan told the court during the sentence hearing.
Spinks' first victim attended Wagga High School in the early 1970s when Spinks was an English teacher.
On more than one occasion Spinks asked the boy, who was in year 11, to carry some books back to the book room. He then followed him there and sexually assaulted him anally.
Spinks told the boy that if he told anyone about what happened, he would be expelled and would not be able to sit for his HSC.
The second victim was a year seven student in Gunnedah in the 1980s. At the time Spinks was the deputy principal and head of maths at the school.
The student was sent to Spinks' office to be disciplined after misbehaving in class. Spinks hit him with a cane five times and he started crying. Embarrassed and not wanting his friends to see him cry, the student asked to be taken somewhere private.
Spinks took the student to a private room with a bed in it and asked him to lay on the bed. He pulled the student's pants and underwear down and rubbed the student's genitals. The student asked him to stop but he continued.
The same thing happened again on a different day when the student got in trouble for playing handball in the corridor.
Spinks resigned from being a teacher in the late 1980s after complaints about his sexual behaviour.
Spinks in a state of cognitive decline
Handing down Spinks' sentence, Judge Anderson said that due to Spinks' state of poor health, he would be dealt with under the Mental Health Act.
A medical report before the court said Spinks has a number of physical health issues, including arthritis. When he went into custody over the charges on March 18, 2025, Spinks had a fall and dislocated his hip and had to have a hip replacement.
He also suffers from dementia, leading to both long and short-term memory issues, and he is often confused and disoriented.
He sentenced Spinks to a term of imprisonment of three years and ten months, which will expire on April 5, 2029.
He explained that the sentence was what is known as a "limiting term", an indication of the penalty the court would have imposed on the defendant if the matter wasn't being dealt with under the Mental Health Act.
Spinks will remain in custody until he comes under the care of the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
