{"id":663233,"date":"2026-05-11T05:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T05:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:35:10","slug":"keysborough-secondary-college-teacher-kim-ramchen-jailed-for-knife-attack-on-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663233\/","title":{"rendered":"Keysborough Secondary College teacher Kim Ramchen jailed for knife attack on principal"},"content":{"rendered":"

An IT teacher who “snapped” and stabbed a Melbourne principal during school hours has been sentenced to 15 months’ jail.<\/p>\n

Keysborough Secondary College principal Aaron Sykes was in his office when he was attacked by Kim Ramchen in December last year.<\/p>\n

Ramchen left after being disarmed by another teacher but returned with a larger knife to continue the attack before being disarmed again.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Aaron Sykes was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. (Keysborough Secondary College)<\/p>\n

Last week the 37-year-old pleaded guilty to multiple charges and was this morning sentenced to 15 months behind bars with a non-parole period of eight months and 14 days, taking into account 160 days already served in custody.<\/p>\n

Deputy chief magistrate Tim Bourke described Ramchen’s offending as “serious”.<\/p>\n

“Even more serious in the context of a school environment at 3pm, where children were on campus,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The offending has occurred in what should only ever be a safe place, not just for students, but coworkers and the broader school community.<\/p>\n

“You have attacked the school principal twice, and a work colleague who bravely came to his aid.<\/p>\n

“In your police interview, you state that you mentally snapped, and ‘my blood just went to my head and I just became incredibly angry and emotional, incredibly, unbelievably angry.'”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Kim Ramchen was taken into custody after being wrestled to the ground by other teachers. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

During his sentencing remarks, Magistrate Bourke said Ramchen’s guilty plea had entitled him to “a significant discount” and that his “impaired mental functioning” at the time of the attack was also a mitigating factor.<\/p>\n

“But for the plea of guilty, the total sentence I would have otherwise imposed is 20 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months,” he said.<\/p>\n

During last week’s hearing the court heard Mr Sykes had not been able to return to work since the December attack, which left him with cuts to his jaw, cheek, lip and arm.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The stabbing occurred at the college’s Acacia campus while students were at school. (AAP: Con Chronis)<\/p>\n

During a police interview Ramchen said he “mentally snapped” after discovering his contract would not be renewed at the school.<\/p>\n

The court also heard Ramchen was facing marriage difficulties, undiagnosed mental health disorders and was addicted to painkillers at the time.<\/p>\n

He has since been diagnosed with autism and depression with anxious distress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An IT teacher who “snapped” and stabbed a Melbourne principal during school hours has been sentenced to 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[320348,64,63,315718,315717,44,320347,177638,30023],"class_list":["post-663233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-aaron-sykes","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-keysborough-secondary-college","tag-kim-ramchen","tag-news","tag-principal-stabbed","tag-school-stabbing","tag-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}