A former deputy headmaster has had his jail sentence reduced by almost a year after undercover police caught him seeking sex with an alleged underage girl.
Damian Wanstall had been sentenced to three years and seven months in July 2023 with a non-parole period of two years.
The man, now 50 and at the time a deputy principal at Kellyville High School in Sydney’s northwest, was caught by police after posting an online classified ad with the headline: “Any Indian teen or legal phile looking to have some fun.”
The advert read: “40 year old Australian dad looking for sex this weekend. Reward. Can receive Rouse Hill discreetly.”
He was contacted by an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl and arranging what he thought was a sexual encounter in the western Sydney suburb of Westmead.
Instead, he was arrested by police with $200 in his pocket and pleaded guilty to one count of using a transportation service to solicit child abuse material.
On Monday, in the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal, a three-judge panel quashed his initial conviction and unanimously imposed a shorter sentence of two years and eight months.
His non-parole period was also shortened to 18 months and will expire on November 16.
Former high school vice-principal Damian Wanstall was arrested by undercover police while seeking sex with an alleged underage girl.
The appeal court found that Judge Andrew Colefax wrongly assumed Wanstall had given false instructions to his solicitor at an earlier hearing in the Local Court.
In re-sentencing the former deputy headmaster, the court accepted that the 50-year-old had been drinking heavily and was intoxicated at the time he sought out teenagers for sex.
Psychiatrist Dr Andrew Ellis told the court that alcohol provided an explanation for the unusual behaviour but did not excuse Wanstall for what he ultimately did.
The court rejected the former deputy warden’s claims that the publicity surrounding his case amounted to extracurial punishment, with Judge Deborah Sweeney noting that the media reports were “neither inaccurate nor sensationalist”.
Wanstall was deputy principal at Kellyville High School in Sydney’s northwest at the time of the offence.
However, the loss of his career as a result of the violation was taken into account as an additional punishment during the new sentencing.
In a letter to the court, Wanstall appeared to show genuine remorse for his conduct, saying he was ashamed, disgusted and horrified by what he had done, Judge Sweeney wrote.
However, he still placed some blame on the undercover officer and expressed regret for the negative impact the crime had had on his life.
The judge noted that he had positive prospects for rehabilitation, tutoring inmates at Kirkconnell prison, near Bathurst, and carrying out administrative duties for educational services there.
The charge Wanstall admitted to carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
The NSW Education Department previously said Wanstall had been sacked immediately after being convicted.