Markets 
A teacher who was caught molesting a student on a bus has sobbed as he was jailed for abusing the vulnerable teenager.
Justin Marks pleaded guilty to 12 charges including sexual assault of a child and sexual penetration of a child after abusing the girl over a seven-week period in 2024.
He cried and rocked back and forth as County Court Judge Paul Higham sentenced him to seven years and one month behind bars on Friday.
“You saw [the victim] through the lens of sexual attraction, whether driven by the need for validation or base sexual desire you pursued your needs without a thought for [her] wellbeing,” Higham said.
The teacher guided conversations with the student about their sexual interactions “at each and every stage” in thousands of messages, the court was told.
“You knew of her vulnerability, your messaging appeared to give [her] a choice, but in fact you were setting the agenda,” the judge said.
The now 35-year-old was caught when an alert female bus driver confronted him about his behaviour with the student on a trip to the college in Melbourne’s outer-west, sparking the police investigation.
The court heard the driver accused Marks of inappropriately touching the young teenage girl.
“I just witnessed everything that happened on the bus, all the way back to here,” she told Marks.
The driver then asked her bosses to check the security footage on board and, after reviewing it, the company contacted the school and Triple Zero.
Higham told the court Marks response to the bus driver’s accusations was dismissive, and when the principal questioned him, the teacher claimed he was simply “making sure that [the victim] was OK”.
The court heard Marks, whose wife was pregnant at the time, initially claimed to police he’d been holding hands with the girl, before admitting to the sex act.
“The record of interview [with police] contains a multiplicity of untruths and deliberate falsehoods,” Higham said.
Marks told officers nothing similar happened before, but it emerged it was not the first time he had assaulted the child.
The court heard an analysis of electronic devices uncovered more than 14,000 messages between the pair across an encrypted app and mobile devices in just six weeks.
The court was told Marks had an increased need for his victim’s admiration and attention, driven by his “fragile self-esteem”.
The crimes were premeditated, and all happened on school grounds or during school outings.
“You turned a place of learning into a place of sexual violation, and turned your student into an object for the satisfaction of your desires,” Higham said.
The judge noted Marks had since shown remorse, saying he would “regret this for this of my life…the guilt will never go away.”
Higham said as a result of Marks’ crimes his ex-wife had chosen not to name him as the father on the child’s birth certificate and he was not allowed to see the baby.
He said Marks had crossed all acceptable boundaries between a student and teacher.
His victim previously told the court she would never fully recover from what happened to her.
“It lingers like gas in the air, hanging in a cloud wherever I go,” she said.
“I was so deeply manipulated that my mind could not cope.
“I knew that what he was doing to me was wrong, but I was so deeply, deeply in his grasp that I couldn’t bring myself to do the right thing.”
Marks must serve at least four years and three months before he is eligible for parole and will be a registered sex offender for life.
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Caroline Schelle is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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