By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A FORMER Berwick teacher who used a camera disguised as a pen to film up the skirts of female students over a two year period has been released on bail pending a sentencing appeal.
Marinko Jankovic, 61, fronted the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 18 June where he was initially sentenced to six months imprisonment after entering a guilty plea to knowingly producing and possessing more than 100 pornographic images of children under his care at Berwick Secondary College.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell later granted Jankovic bail, with his appeal to be heard at the County Court on Friday 14 August.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Aimee Ryland told the court Jankovic covertly captured sexually explicit images of the female students using a pen cam that he would strategically place near his desk before summoning girls, all under the age of 18, to the front of the class between 2011 and 2013.
“He would summon the students to the front of his class room and direct them to stand in a specific location in order to have the child placed in the best position to capture images underneath their dresses,” read the charges summary.
The court heard Jankovic also took the camera around his classroom and positioned it and himself so he could film up girls’ skirts and dresses while they sat at desks.
Police uncovered Jankovic’s stash of child pornography after his school laptop was seized by principal Kerri Bolch in the company of assistant principal James Doble on Thursday 7 March.
The laptop was scanned by the school’s IT department, uncovering a number of sexually explicit upskirting images which led his arrest and teaching suspension the following day.
Police later searched Jankovic’s Newborough home on Friday 8 March where dozens of pornographic images taken by Jankovic were found on different digital devices.
Police said 137 female students were captured in the 106 digital files taken by Jankovic, but were unsure how many different girls were victims of Jankovic’s two-year upskirting scandal.
Defence counsel Rohan Lawrence said Jankovic was suffering stress at the time of his offending, based on a degree of animosity he had with a staff member.
Mr Lawrence said Jankovic had initially used the pen camera to record discussions with his colleagues and urged Magistrate O’Donnell to spare the former teacher from a jail term due to poor health and clear criminal history.
Magistrate O’Donnell did not accept stress experienced by Jancovic when sentencing him, labelling his behaviour a gross breach of trust that had devastated the Berwick Secondary College community.
The court heard Jankovic was assessed as having a low to moderate risk of re-offending and did not believe his offences were driven by sexual motivation.
Authorities knew of the allegations in March 2013, when Jankovic was immediately stood down, but took almost two years to tell students they may be victims.
Jankovic was initially sentenced to six months in jail with a two-year community corrections order but overturned the sentence after his plea for appeal was granted.
Jankovic will remain listed on the sexual offenders registry for the next 15 years.
The grandfather of three was supported in court by his ex-wife, sister and brother-in-law.
