A former teacher, who taught at a Melbourne school for the deaf will not go to jail for making student expose themselves in class, as he has cancer.

The Victorian County Court heard Thursday, the 55 year old man had in the 1970s asked his pupils aged between eight and nine to expose their genitalia in class.

Earlier this year, a jury found him guilty on nine counts of flagrant indecency.

A County Court judge sentencing the man to a suspended jail sentence Thursday, described his offences as a very serious breach of trust.

‘This offending was evasive, humiliating and damaging to young and particularly vulnerable children,’ the judge said.

He also said the incident had long lasting effects on the children, with many of the victims experiencing flashbacks and bad dreams, which made their lives both difficult and painful, including leaving them with feelings of disgust and anger.

Outside court, a spokeswoman for his victims said they felt cheated by the sentence. And, one victim even said she had never received an apology from the man, which was all she wanted.

The judge, while not insensitive to the seriousness of the offence, seeing that the teacher had cancer and had a 55 to 75% chance of surviving for five years, said he would not jail the man.

The former teacher, himself a father of two, no longer works in his profession was diagnosed with cancer during his trial, and will begin aggressive treatment soon.

The judge has ordered the teacher’s name be suppressed from being published, as medical evidence indicates stress would adversely impact his treatment.

The teacher has received a suspended jail sentence of five months.

The maximum penalty for gross indecency at the time the offence was committed was two years in prison, the judge noted.