‘I feared for my life. It was beyond my little brain’s comprehension’

As child-sex predator Vivian Deboo prepares to appeal his sentence, one of his victims, “B”, reveals how the convicted changed his life forever. WARNING: Disturbing content.

• Vivian Deboo’s appeal fasttracked to SA’s top court

As child-sex predator Vivian Deboo prepares to appeal his sentence, one of his victims, “B”, reveals how the convicted changed his life forever. WARNING: Disturbing content.

We’ve been holding our breath for a long time. Ever since a monster sexually abused us as kids, my brother and I have been struggling just to stay afloat.

Treading water. Waiting. Wondering. Every so often sinking beneath the water. Not knowing where the shameful tide was going to drag us to next. Always holding our breath.

As little kids growing up, nobody knew we were drowning. The shame we felt, the evil manipulation of our abuser, kept us silent.

We couldn’t even bring ourselves to confide in each other. Nobody threw us a lifeline. We felt like we were floating out to sea.

In November 2018, Vivian Frederick Deboo, the monster who mercilessly preyed upon us nearly 30 years before, was finally sentenced to six years and seven months in jail.

After sanctimoniously professing his innocence, the born-again Christian would plead guilty to five child-sex crimes.

His guilty plea came in exchange for a downgrade of the most serious charge, unlawful sexual intercourse, to indecent assault.

Paedophiles, especially old ones, usually have a decent chance at getting home detention for indecently assaulting kids. Usually you have to formally rape children to end up in jail.

As such, pleading guilty to lesser charges wasn’t the dumbest decision Deboo ever made. It was his first push for a home detention order.

It had taken three exhausting years being dragged through the court system before Deboo was sentenced. Holding our breath at each and every turn.

Deboo used just about every trick in the legal playbook to delay, duck, dodge, dive and weave. To avoid justice. But eventually justice caught up with old man Deboo.

We finally exhaled. Maybe we wouldn’t drown after all. The predator was finally behind bars.

Vivian Frederick Deboo, centre, and his wife Margaret, right, are confronted by one of his victims "B", as he enters the District Court to face sentencing submissions in November.

This week, Deboo was granted permission to appeal his sentence to the Full Court of the Supreme Court. He thinks his sentence is manifestly unjust.

The weary old paedophile wants to live peacefully with his wife, Margaret, in their cosy home in Pasadena – nestled among leafy streets, schools and childcare centres.

Viv thinks six years is too much. Six years for tearing apart the lives of two innocent kids.

Six years for committing the type of heinous crimes that horrify every parent. Six years for a previously convicted child sex offender.

Six years for a worm who cunningly infiltrated churches and children’s camps to gain access to vulnerable children. Six years for a man who, for three years, strenuously denied all allegations against him before finally pleading guilty to accept a better deal. Six years.

In 1991, I was a kid growing up in a small country town in SA, the youngest of four siblings.

Mum worked full-time to support our family.

She also cut our hair and hand-sewed most of our clothes. We didn’t have a lot of possessions, but that never seemed to matter. We were happy.

I have great memories that same year of watching my childhood heroes, Steve Waugh and Dean Jones, plundering bowling attacks during one-day games.

I spent hours playing cricket in the driveway with a hard, composite ball. The Adelaide Crows played their first season of footy in the AFL, providing me with another set of heroes to aspire to. It was a great time to be a kid. 1991 was also the year I was raped.

I was 11 years old when Deboo preyed upon me. He wasn’t a creepy bloke in a trench coat.

He was a well-known, jovial, trusted figure within our church and local community.

He promised my parents he would look after me. He gave me a job in his cafe washing dishes, having successfully groomed me for years prior.

Two brothers, victims of child sex predator Vivian Deboo, with supporters outside the District Court, Wednesday, November 28, 2018. (AAP Image/ Brenton Edwards)

During my first shift in that cafe, late at night, he cornered and attacked me. I wasn’t just a deer in the headlights. I was Bambi. Innocent and unsuspecting – a naive little kid.

There was no way of defending myself against an adult predator at least three times my size. I felt sick. I feared for my life.

I was alone, trapped, stripped naked, held from behind and fearful for my life. I felt physical pain. It was beyond my little brain’s comprehension.

During the attack, the depraved monster told me that God and my parents wanted this to happen. In my shock and juvenile naivety, I strangely believed him.

I managed to escape and fled home riding my BMX. Through darkened streets with no lights I pedalled as though my life depended on it.

I can still hear the spokey dokeys on my wheels clattering away as I feverishly pumped my legs to go faster.

Each time I heard or saw a car coming, I bunny-hopped the kerb and sheltered behind bushes, drenched in cold sweat, until the vehicle passed by.

I was petrified that Deboo would follow me in his car and kill me. When I eventually arrived home, I was physically ill and vomited.

That night, Deboo destroyed my childhood. His actions tore our family apart. Life would never be the same again, for any of us. Turns out, 1991 was not a great year to be a kid.

A few months prior, Deboo had taken my older brother 100km away from our family home. He was 13 years old at the time. A more sweet and happy kid you would never meet.

Everyone loved him. Isolated and alone, Deboo slept in a caravan with my brother every night for a week. Deboo was calculating and premeditated.

Vivian Frederick Deboo arrives at the District court in Adelaide on November 28, 2018. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

When my brother first walked into that caravan he realised there was only one bed. Deboo attacked and sexually assaulted my brother on the first night. A fight ensued.

Confused, trapped, alone and terrified, my brother wriggled free and sought shelter beneath a table. There, on the floor and underneath a table, Deboo would eerily watch him sleep every night for an entire week – trembling in fear and waiting for the next attack to come.

Each evening, Deboo stood directly over my brother and asked him to telephone our parents, to let them know everything was going OK.

In my brother’s young mind it felt like Deboo was establishing an unwritten rule – tell your parents anything and I will kill you.

The torment and suffering my brother endured that week are beyond my comprehension. Deboo treated him like a dog.

Three other innocent boys, aged 14 to 16, suffered a similar fate at Deboo’s evil hands between 1989 and 1990.

Their individual stories are not mine to tell but the crimes against them were just as horrid.

Deboo pleaded guilty to 10 child-sex charges in relation to these young boys – nine counts of indecent assault and one of unlawful sexual intercourse (rape).

In 1996, Deboo was sentenced to a six-year sentence for these crimes. It was reduced to a two-year non-parole period then reduced again with time served awaiting trial.

He served less than two years in jail and was released to be home before Christmas. Two years for the sexual assault and rape of children.

Is Viv hard done by? Should his current sentence of six years be more or less? I understand the court has to deal with him on the basis of his guilty pleas.

The question now is, what will the three Supreme Court judges presiding over his appeal think? Until we know the answer, we feel like we’re drowning again. Holding our breath.