Exposed: South East child sex offenders or groomers who fronted court in 2022
From men who preyed on homeless teens and abusers who plied their victim with booze, these are some of the worst southeast child sex offenders or groomers.
Mount Gambier
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Sexual predators come in many forms, family, friends, school teachers, and trusted community members, but what they all have in common is they prey on vulnerable children.
The number of sexual assault offenders were recorded by Australian police jumped by 13 per cent between 2010 and 2020.
There were more than 53,000 sexual offenders recorded between 2010-11 and 2019-20, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
These are the vile southeast sex predators who fronted in court in 2022.
Harold James Climas
Harold James Climas, 71, was found guilty following a jury trial of trying to “force” his 10-year-old victim “into submission and ultimately silence” after sexually abusing her.
Prosecutor Mollie McKendrick told the jury the victim had tried to “block out” memories of the abuse for four years before, before a moment of vulnerability saw her “word vomit” what had happened to her.
After being picked up from T-ball, the victim went to Climas’s house, before watching several movies and eventually going to sleep in the guest room, the court heard.
“She was woken in the middle of the night needing to get a drink of water,” Ms McKendrick said.
When she returned to the guestroom she found him in her room.
“She asked him what he was doing, to which he replied that he just wanted some company,” Ms McKendrick said.
“ (Climas) moved closer towards the (victim) before placing his hand up her shirt.”
The court heard, following her horrific assault, the victim apologised to her abuser, as Climas had “failed” to penetrate the victim “giving up after a couple of tries”.
Climas was labelled an opportunistic offender – building up a rapport with his victim by giving her gifts, even offering to take her to Kmart to buy another present after the assault, the court heard.
Climas was due to face sentencing in December, however the matter has been adjourned to a later date.
Martyn Lee Howard
Martyn Lee Howard, 68, was a convicted paedophile before he conned a family into trusting him so he could groom and abuse a young girl, a court heard.
The victim lived with relatives who had been friends of Howard for some time and believed he was wrongfully jailed for his past crimes.
In a victim impact statement read to the District Court, the girl’s great-grandmother said she had to deal with the guilt of believing Howard’s story of being a falsely convicted paedophile.
The victim’s great-grandfather said Howard’s offending delivered them the “greatest betrayal”.
“Under the pretext of providing the care and love (the victim) craved, he was responsible for her persistent sexual abuse and associated grooming,” he said.
The court heard the victim had stopped going to school and disengaged from activities she once loved.
“She has been fearful of going out in the community due to the risk of seeing Martyn,” the victim’s great-grandfather said.
“Since the trial (the victim) has been asking if Martyn is in jail, she has talked about being worried that he would climb through her window at night.”
Howard also pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child exploitation material after police found 12 videos of “extremely graphic” child exploitation material, some with children under 10.
During sentencing, Judge Rauf Soulio said Howard continued to deny the offending, which showed his lack of contrition, and meant there was no scope for rehabilitation.
Judge Soulio said it was a serious example of offending and sentenced Howard to 10 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of eight years.
Private school old scholar
A 21-year-old southeast man who went to a prestigious Adelaide private school will spend no time behind bars after he sexually abused a girl from his former school and supplied her with booze.
The victim was visiting a friend from the southeast while on holiday before she was assaulted by the girl’s brother, an old scholar from the school she attends.
Bravely confronting the man who abused her, the girl, who had turned 16 one week before the vile assault, spoke about the “nightmare” she relives daily.
“I had only been 16 for nine days,” she said.
“He took everything — my very sense of autonomy — I couldn’t even look in the mirror.”
The girl’s father struggled to address the court as he described the difficulty of watching on “helpless” as his daughter struggled.
During sentencing, Judge Geraldine Davison told the court the girl struggled to keep her eyes open, as the man began to touch her before — unhooking her bra.
“(The victim) felt pretty drunk as it was the first time she had drank that much alcohol,” Judge Davison said.
The victim began to run off in the opposite direction before the man “caught up with her and grabbed her around the waist”, the court heard.
The girl was left shaking and hyperventilating after the man took off her clothes and sexually abused her.
After a 10 per cent discount was applied, the man was sentenced to two years, eight months and 13 days’ jail with a non-parole of one year and three months, but Judge Davison suspended the sentence on a three-year good behaviour bond.
Brenton Devlin
Sentencing for former youth leader Brenton Devlin, 60, who attempted to groom a 14-year-old child has been delayed as his lawyer continues to fight for a home detention sentence.
Devlin, who was involved in a serious crash in 1991, is a paraplegic and also lives with a traumatic brain injury.
Devlin’s lawyer Kate Annells is considering applying for special circumstances after a home detention report highlighted issues with affixing an ankle monitoring device to Devlin.
“My client has a permanent catheter that runs down his leg that is moved from one leg to the other on a weekly basis — because of the risk of pressure sores,” she said.
“Due to his disability, he sleeps on a special waterbed style mattress and there was a risk that the (ankle monitoring device) could catch and cause a hole in that mattress.”
Ms Annells previously said her paraplegic client was “essentially a very lonely, intellectually disabled man” who posed no risk to the community.
According to court documents, the Mount Gambier man repeatedly messaged the child between April and May 2021.
The court heard Devlin posed as a 16-year-old boy after finding out the girl he was speaking to online was 14, sending her a picture of a young male in a Crows guernsey, the court heard.
Prosecutor Ben Sturm sympathised with Devlin’s disabilities, but said a term of imprisonment was warranted as it was clear there had been no physical change in Devlin between the time of offending and now.
“His permanent infirmity is one that predated this offending, in physical terms he is equally as capable of committing the offence today as he was 17 months ago,” Mr Sturm said.
Mr Sturm argued Devlin’s charges related to the communications he had with the child and “the effect that they have on the victim”, not whether he was physically capable of carrying out any sex act.
Judge Heath Barklay adjourned the matter and is expected to sentence Devlin in January.
Leslie Paul David Long
Leslie Paul David Long, 43, took advantage of a homeless child who was leaving an abusive relationship — later impregnating and having a baby with her.
Long met his victim when he was 29 and she was between the ages of 14 and 15, with the pair often smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol together, a court heard.
The victim, now an adult, read out her impact statement earlier this year, telling the court she was “haunted” by the persistent abuse the accused inflicted upon her.
“I was a child – a girl that was lost, confused — you were 29-years-old,” she said.
“Pregnancy is supposed to be one of the happiest times in a woman’s life — I was terrified.”
The victim said his constant sexual demands and verbal abuse left her with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and she struggled to say no to sex in other relationships.
“When I do have the courage to say, ‘no’, I’m terrified that my partner will be angry with me,” she said.
She said she drew strength from their son who wanted nothing to do with his biological dad.
“He is ashamed to be related to you,” she said.
After he pleaded guilty to one count of persistent sexual exploitation of a child, the court found he should have pleaded guilty to an alternative charge.
Long later pleaded guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship and was sentenced to three years four months and 25 days’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of one year and nine months.
Peter Hyde
Peter Lionel Hyde, 81, will be able to continue caring for his dementia-suffering wife after he blamed “aggressive” advertising on him transitioning to his sinister online habit.
The Rocky Camp man narrowly avoided serving his remaining years in jail after being caught with thousands of vile child exploitation files.
Police attended Hyde’s house in December 2017 and seized his devices where they found more than 2700 child exploitation images and videos, with the majority being children under 14 years.
Three-hundred-and-thirty-seven files were classified as being in category four.
Category four of the Oliver scale – which forms the basis on which child exploitation images and videos are graded – involves penetrative sexual activity between children only or adults and children.
The court heard Hyde, who originally denied his online identity, said he made the insidious transition to child exploitation material due to “aggressive” marketing, such as pop-up advertisements.
The court heard Hyde spread child exploitation material online through “detailed” Twitter messages.
“You assumed false identities and spoke about sexually offending against children – that included offending against an imaginary niece of yours,” Judge Gordon Barrett said during sentencing.
Hyde was sentenced to two years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
The sentence was to be served on home detention, due to his low risk of reoffending.
John Edward Madex
A convicted child sex offender broke down in tears in the dock as he learned he would be heading to prison for accessing vile “depraved” child exploitation material.
John Edward Madex, 74, had 325 web searches for child exploitation material, targeting children aged between 11 and 13, a court heard.
During his sentencing remarks in the Mount Gambier District Court, Judge Heath Barklay slammed Madex for fuelling international demand for the sexual exploitation of children.
“The problem of child pornography is international — people like you who access child exploitation material only fuel the market for these images and videos,” Judge Barklay said.
Madex was discovered by police during a routine search of the convicted sex offender’s phone and property.
Police discovered 96 files of child exploitation material on his phone, the court heard.
Madex’s internet search history was filled with horrific terms including “rape”, “virgins” and “daddy-daughter”, the court heard.
Judge Barklay expressed concern that some of the titles included phrases such as, “animal girl sex”.
Prosecutor Georgina Nicholson described Madex as “depraved” with a “sexual inclination” towards little girls.
Madex is a serious sexual offender and was convicted of sexually abusing a seven-year-old on “at least three occasions” during the 1980s.
“He clearly has a very strong sexual interest in little girls,” Ms Nicholson said.
After a 25 per cent sentencing discount was applied for his early guilty plea, Madex was sentenced to one year and one month imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 months and 25 days.
South East man
A southeast father who took advantage of a 15-year-old girl, treating her “like a slave” and subjecting her to years of abuse will spend at least five years behind bars for his vile crimes.
The 40-year-old perpetrator cannot be identified to protect the victim.
Outside Mount Gambier District Court, the victim said her abuser should have been jailed for longer.
The girl’s mother said her daughter “was given a life sentence”.
Confronting her abuser, the victim read out a victim impact statement detailing the years of abuse she was subjected to.
“I was 15 and he was 36,” she said.
“I lost my oldest brother to cancer and then one year later, in 2017, at the age of 14 I was sexually assaulted.
“At the time (the accused) and I commenced our relationship I was suicidal and self-harming, which I confided to (him).
“The next two and a half years was hell.”
His victim became a “slave” and was forced to cater to his every demand “from the moment he awoke to the moment he went to sleep”, the court has heard.
The victim was afraid to talk to her friends and family, fearing reprisals from her abuser who would physically assault her, the court heard.
She was “isolated from the world” and “very alone”.
“His abuse has left me scared of men — it has caused me to have severe anxiety, depression and PTSD,” she said.
The man was sentenced to eight years and three months in jail with a non-parole period of five years.
It was backdated to his arrest on February 26, 2021.
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