AN EVIL, EVIL MAN

What I am about to tell you is a nightmare. One of the worst cases of child abuse we have ever seen in this country. It went on for fifty years. Affected generations of one family and anybody who came in contact with them. It concerns an evil man. A cunning predator. A grandfather, who sexually assaulted his own children and his children’s children.

He attacked two of his own daughters when they were four years old.  His six-year-old grandson in the bath. His two year old grandchild was sexually assaulted. His nephews and nieces. A family friend and years later her young daughter. Plus young African refugees befriended by his family.

This 71-year-old paedophile was a prominent member of a Melbourne church. Two refugees from Ethiopia, aged 11 and 8, were molested on church excursions. So was an 11-year-old Sudanese boy. The man changed his name many years ago and kept offending.

He was only caught last year when the father of his two-and-a-half-year-old grandchild suspected he was molesting the child while he was baby-sitting him. The father installed a video surveillance device and caught the grandfather performing a sex act on the little boy.

He has pleaded guilty to 19 charges of indecent/sexual assault, one count of incest and one count of possessing child pornography. There must have been hundreds of other crimes. Other victims who stayed quiet.  I cannot name him, although he deserves to be shamed, because that would identify his victims and God knows they have suffered enough.

I was alerted to this case shortly before the man was charged. One person  close to the case wrote to me and said:

‘This man (she named him) has committed offences for 50 years, against family members, children of extended family, friends and acquaintances and members of a Melbourne Church.  He has finally been caught and the community needs to know how he is sentenced.  He must never be allowed to be in a position to offend again. Please tell the world Derryn.’

In court his lawyer, Greg Thomas, said his client was very remorseful for his conduct. ‘He has struggled all his life with the fact that he appears to be a paedophile.’ Appears to be a paedophile? He has been stalking and abusing children, including his own, for fifty years.

He presented a letter to the court expressing his ‘ shame, sorrow and deep regret’ for his abuse. Bullshit. His only regret is that he finally got caught.
I wonder how he got away with it for so long. People obviously suspected  him. Somehow his victims stayed quiet. Tragically, not one, not one of their parents, went to the Police it seems twenty, thirty years ago? Not one family member came forward. Not one church member. Was it the secret you don’t talk about? How many lives could have been saved if they had?

Judge Wendy Wilmoth sentenced this vile creature to 14 years jail with a minimum of nine years. He should have got more.

He appeared in court in a wheelchair after recent surgery for prostate and bladder cancer. His lawyer told the court he will probably die during his nine-years in jail. I hope he does.

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008