When Katrina Munting started her science degree at the University of Tasmania in 2002, she found the teacher who had sexually abused her when she was a high school student just a few years before was working at the same university's science department, a court has been told.
Ms Munting was sexually abused by Marcus James Pollard, her science teacher at Hobart's Rose Bay High School, in 1998 and 1999. Pollard, now aged 66, pleaded guilty in 2020 to persistent sexual abuse of a young person and was sentenced to three years' jail.
Now Ms Munting is suing Pollard and Tasmania's Education Department for damages, which include medical treatment and lost earning capacity.
She is also seeking "exemplary" damages from Pollard for his alleged behaviour during the current legal proceedings, an allegation Pollard has denied.
Barrister Ken Read SC told the Supreme Court in Hobart on Tuesday that Ms Munting had been an excellent student — at high school, college and at university — but the consequences of the abuse she experienced meant she had been unable to reach her full career potential.
The court was told Ms Munting had told her now-husband about the abuse in 2000, and that he helped her write a letter to the Education Department about the impact of the abuse.
Mr Read read from the letter: "I felt trapped in a vicious cycle, I didn't know what to do, he seemed to have my life in the palm of my hand."
He said Ms Munting also wrote about her ambition to go to university and her concern if she "upset" Pollard, that he could punish her.
"He [Pollard] was going to be the life or death of my dreams," the letter said.
Ms Munting told the court on Tuesday that Pollard came to the school while he was on sick leave and arranged to meet her in a darkroom, which, at that time, was being used as a store room.
Ms Munting also told the court Pollard arranged to meet her in a car park at the school, made her lie on the floor of his vehicle so no one could see her, and drove her to his house.
She told the court she stopped contact with Pollard after another teacher told her, "it has been noticed that you and Pollard are spending time together and that is not normal".
Ms Munting said she was "gob-smacked" that someone else knew. She said she ran into the girls' toilets and "bawled my eyes out".
"I thought I was going to get in so much trouble … I was stuffed. I had to find a way to make it stop.
"People knew, and I was going to get in a lot of trouble and, being a goody two-shoes that I was, I didn't want to get in trouble, so I had to do what I could to minimise the damage, but I was caught between a rock and a hard place: Do I anger the man that's abusing me by starting to refuse?
"I felt that hell was about to rain down on me from the school, from my teachers, from my parents."
Ms Munting told the court she stopped contact with Pollard, and he started putting notes in her locker. Asked how the notes made her feel, she told the court "disgusting, dirty, naughty, distraught, scared".
She told the court that Pollard's behaviour to her then became vindictive. She said that, during the third school term in 1999, when she was in his science class, he would ignore her, or make comments to others that she felt were directed at her.
Ms Munting told the court those science classes were "three hours a week of hell".
"No one else in the room would have known what those comments really meant, but I did," she told the court.
The court heard Ms Munting has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Abuse, injury, not disputed, court hears
Barrister Kate Cuthbertson SC, representing the Education Department, gave an opening reply on Tuesday.
She told the court that her client did not dispute Ms Munting was a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Pollard, or that the abuse had caused injury.
The main dispute is over the claim of lost earning capacity.
Ms Cuthbertson said Ms Munting was believed when the abuse was reported to the school's then-principal in early 2000, and that the principal "quickly swung into action", reporting the abuse to a departmental grievances and investigations officer, who referred to Pollard as "the perpetrator".
She told the court that Pollard resigned shortly after that report was made.
His next job, however, was at the University of Tasmania, where Ms Munting started her degree in 2002.
Mr Read told the court it was a condition of Pollard's employment that he not have contact with Ms Munting, but he said the potential re-exposure to Pollard caused problems for Ms Munting.
The court heard the potential re-exposure to him brought on feelings of shame, self-blame and guilt.
Pollard is not participating in the civil, judge-only trial, but he did file a defence with the Supreme Court.
In it, he denied that he, on repeated occasions, sexually assaulted and battered Ms Munting and that the sexual assaults and battery occurred during school hours on school premises, on a school camp at Maria Island, and at Pollard's home.
Pollard denied he had an unlawful "relationship" with Ms Munting, and denied he was vindictive towards her.
He admitted some physical contact, including kissing and touching Ms Munting on several occasions in 1998, at school and a school camp at Maria Island.
Pollard admitted those allegations constituted battery of Ms Munting.
Ms Munting's lawyers argue that Pollard's denial of matters dealt with in the criminal court process show a "continuing contumelious (scornful and insulting) disregard for [Ms Munting's] rights", something Pollard has denied.
The trial, before Acting Justice David Porter, continues.
