Senior Bourke paramedic Ronald Francis Willoughby jailed
He was once a trusted member of the community — serving as a senior paramedic and named citizen of the year. Convicted paedophile Ronald Francis Willoughby hung his head during his sentencing in the Downing Centre District Court.
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A senior paramedic and citizen of the year who sexually abused his foster child could be out of jail as early as next year.
Despite admitting to the abuse, former Ambulance Inspector Ronald Francis Willoughby was supported in court by a top bureaucrat who is the chief executive officer of a major health network.
Willoughby, 63, hung his head in the dock of the Downing Centre District Court on Friday as he was sentenced to a maximum six years in jail.
With time already served on remand, he will be eligible for parole in July 2020.
Before his arrest in 2017, Willoughby, a married father-of-two, was seen as a []pillar of the Bourke community in Far West NSW.
He was Rotary Citizen of the Year in 2014, had been in the Ambulance Service for more than three decades and his family were widely respected.
In 2009, he took a shine to local boy Shane Rose, who met the Willoughby family through the Bourke swimming pool.
Rose, now 20, was in the care of the state at the time.
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His mother died in an accident when he was 12 and he didn’t know his father.
Willoughby took Mr Rose under his wing and gave him a job at the local supermarket.
It was during a lunch break, when Willoughby took him home saying he would make him something to eat, that the sexual offending first began on the loungeroom floor.
Mr Rose continued to work at the supermarket while Willoughby showered him with gifts and support, from clothing to a mobile phone to enrolling the then year 8 student in a private school in Campbelltown.
While Mr Rose felt like he had someone who believed in him, he knew it had divided his family.
“When my family first found out I was going to be living with a white man and not family who were of Aboriginal descent, it started an eruption of arguments and fallouts towards me,” he said in a statement during Willoughby’s sentence hearing recently.
“I felt very disconnected from my people and the indigenous community.
“I believe that this was Ronald’s ultimate goal — to isolate me from my family, my people and my community.”
During school in 2013, Willoughby, who was appointed a foster carer that year, sexually assaulted Mr Rose in a Dubbo motel room.
In 2017, after moving out of Willoughby’s home, Mr Rose confided in Child Abuse Squad detectives about his abuse.
Bravely, he wore a hidden recording device and documented Willoughby’s confession.
In his emotional victim impact statement, Mr Rose detailed the lingering effects of the abuse — suicide attempts, anxiety, alcohol and drug issues and confusion over his own sexuality.
He has kicked the damaging habits, is managing his mental health and hopes to study at university in the near future.
As for Willoughby, the court heard, he struggled to understand why he did what he did.
He told a psychologist he identified as heterosexual and first noticed Mr Rose as teenager who used to ask for leftover food outside the supermarket.
Willoughby, whose health has deteriorated in jail, said he gave Mr Rose a job and eventually their relationship became a “fatherly one”.
Asked about the offending Willoughby told the psychologist: “I was the one who did the wrong thing. I feel so bad for Shane.”
Among Willoughby’s referees was a public health nurse, a midwife and Stuart Gordon, the chief executive officer of the Western Queensland Primary Health Network.
Mr Gordon, also the chairman of the NSW Outback Division of General Practice, has forged a career trying to improve the lives of indigenous and rural Australians, including access to health care.
As a long-term family friend of Willoughby, Mr Gordon said he found the offences “Ronnie” committed against a young Aboriginal boy hard to believe.
“When Ronnie was arrested, I was completely and utterly shocked and devastated for him and his family,” his reference said.
“I have struggled to believe that Ronnie did these things but I know that he has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced.
“I will continue to support Ronnie and I will do everything I can to support his family.”
Willoughby pleaded guilty to indecent assault and aggravated sexual intercourse with a person under 16.