Christchurch schoolteacher Samuel Ramsay jailed for grooming, abusing student

Ramsay was 26 when he started messaging the 13-year-old girl.

• High School teacher Samuel Bryant Ramsay groomed a 13-year-old girl before starting a sexual relationship with her when she was 15.
• His victim says she will always live with the trauma of what he did to her.
• Now the 33-year-old has been sentenced to two years and seven months for sexually abusing a minor.

Warning: This story contains content some readers may find disturbing.

A woman was in tears today as she confronted the school teacher who groomed her when she was just 13 before going on to sexually abuse her.

“I will always live with the trauma, the past will not change, the consequences have spread to every part of my life like cancer, I will forever shiver in rage,” she told the court.

Samuel Bryant Ramsay was a 26-year-old high school teacher in Christchurch when he started messaging the girl on Facebook in 2017.

By the time she was 15 they were having sex and he was encouraging her to use birth control.

Today, they were both in court as the now 33-year-old was jailed for the significant breach of trust that left the woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as an adult.

Reading her impact statement in the Christchurch District Court, the victim described how Ramsay had stolen years from her life.

Those years had been replaced with shame, she said.

“I had been manipulated, he preyed on me from aged 13, he groomed me, he used his position as a teacher to manipulate an underage girl.

“Every day was just a reminder of what had been done.”

The woman said she resented the world and no longer trusted anyone.

She made extreme efforts to avoid anything that reminded her of the defendant.

“School was no longer a place of learning; it was where I was groomed.

“I became critically suicidal, my parents feared for my life, my family suffered too, they are victims, my relationships suffered greatly. I vowed never to speak about this, no matter how much I buried the truth, it was impossible to bury.

He made her feel important

Crown prosecutor Cameron Stuart said they were clearly powerful words, demonstrating the devastating impact of sexual offending on young people.

He asked for a starting point of six to seven years imprisonment to reflect that.

While Ramsay had not been the victim’s “direct” teacher, he had taught at the school where she was a pupil when they first started messaging on Facebook.

“Every teacher in the school has a responsibility to their students.”

The summary of facts said the messaging initially started as a conversation around music tastes and school subjects.

It was frequent, to the point where the victim became smitten with Ramsay as he made her feel important.

The messaging slowed towards the end of 2017 and ended in early 2018, the same year Ramsay went overseas for five months.

In late 2019 the victim looked him up on Facebook and reached out to him and the messaging became more frequent once again.

By September 2019 Ramsay and the victim had entered into a relationship, she was 15 and he was 28.

They met over a period of two weeks in a Christchurch motel room where they had sexual intercourse.

Later that year they met in a designated car park near the Waimakariri River, and later at a central city motel unit, and had sex.

On other occasions they socialised in Ramsay’s car and at his flat where they engaged in touching and kissing.

Ramsay suggested to the victim that she should start taking the contraceptive pill. The victim said no while he repeatedly raised the issue.

After multiple discussions about the issue, he convinced the victim, and she obtained a script for the pill from a pharmacy.

She ended the relationship soon afterwards.

‘He has taken this seriously’

Defence lawyer Adam Holland said his client had read the impact statement and wanted to acknowledge the harm he had caused the complainant.

Holland said Ramsay deserved credit for not wanting to put the victim through the trauma of a trial.

He had acknowledged the emotional and financial impact and offered reparation.

Holland said Ramsay wanted the victim to know that by bringing the matter out into the open, he had been able to acknowledge “long-standing issues”.

Ramsay had been extradited back to New Zealand from Singapore in November and undergone numerous assessments.

He was now estranged from his wife and his mother had moved to Singapore to support her and their infant son.

Holland said Ramsay was a teacher in Christchurch for 10 years and would never be able to teach again.

When the sexual relationship occurred, he wasn’t teaching at the same school as the victim was attending.

Holland asked that Ramsay be given a community sentence to avoid having his name on the Child Sex Offender Register.

“He has taken this seriously and wants to make sure this never happens again.”

He also asked for a starting point of five years imprisonment with discounts for guilty pleas, good character, impact on family and remorse.

He said a non-custodial sentence should be considered.

“If the court sends him to jail, he will be registered for the rest of his life. He doesn’t pose a real risk to children; registration would be too onerous.”

Ramsay was sentenced to two years and seven months imprisonment at the Christchurch District Court. Photo / Herald

Judge: You were an adult, she was a child

Judge Katie Elkin, in sentencing him on charges of sexual connection and committing an indecent act with a young person under 16, said there had been a breach of trust and power.

With a starting point of five years and six months imprisonment, the judge applied discounts for guilty pleas, rehabilitation efforts, remorse and previous good character to reach a sentence of two years and seven months imprisonment.

“You were an adult of 28, she was a child of 15.

“You are a registerable offender, I know this is not what you had hoped for, but the law requires me to follow guidelines.”

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the HC Post, based in Whangamata. He was previously deputy editor of Cook Islands News.