Narara: Paul Robert Bamforth pleads guilty to 65 child sex charges after stern warning from judge

Plead guilty or risk spending the rest of your life in prison — that was the blunt warning issued to a man captured on video performing oral sex on a 16-year-old boy, a court has heard.

Paul and Julia Bamforth have pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy over five years at their Narara home on Gilda Drive. Picture: supplied

A Judge has taken the extraordinary step of warning an man to maintain his pleas of guilty to a litany of horrific child sexual abuse charges or risk losing his 25 per cent discount, which could see him released from jail before he dies from old age.

It comes as the barrister for the man’s wife, who was also charged with dozens of child sex offences, has begged the judge not to deliver a “crushing sentence” and instead asked for a total non-parole period of about 20 years jail.

Paul Robert Bamforth, of Narara, was arraigned in Gosford District Court on Wednesday where after a lot of posturing and false starts, eventually pleaded guilty to 65 charges of horrific child sexual abuse.

The 50-year-old told the court his first solicitor “bullied” him into pleading guilty in the Local Court and maintained that he “never had sex” with the victim.

However Judge David Wilson warned Bamforth that if he changed his pleas to not guilty at that late stage he risked losing his 25 per cent discount on sentence, which could otherwise see him released from jail in his early 70s.

Paul and Julia Bamforth, of Narara, are facing sentencing in the District Court for child sexual abuse. Picture: supplied

“It can make a difference to what the rest of your life looks like,” Judge Wilson told him.

“Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in prison?”

The court heard all 65 offences were captured on video and often involved Bamforth instructing his wife to perform various sexual acts on a boy — aged between 12 and 16 — who was repeatedly abused over the course of five and a half years at the couple’s Narara home.

The court heard Bamforth was legally culpable for the offences because he was part of a “joint criminal enterprise” with his wife at the time, even though he did not physically touch the victim.

However Bamforth did plead guilty to one count of aggravated sexual intercourse in which he was filmed performing oral sex on the victim, at the same time as having sex with his wife.

It came after his wife Julia Ann Bamforth, 49, was arraigned last week in which she pleaded guilty to 46 offences, including 35 counts of having sexual intercourse with a child, multiple counts of intentionally sexually touching a child and possessing and producing child abuse videos.

A further 21 charges — including possessing prohibited weapons and drugs — were included on a “form 1” document to be taken into account when she is sentenced.

Some of the drugs and weapons also found at the couple’s Narara home. Picture: NSW Police

Julia Bamforth faced a sentencing hearing on Wednesday in which her barrister John O’Sullivan told the court she risked a “crushing sentence” if she was not allowed to serve some of her total penalty concurrently.

He said an appropriate non-parole period would be around “20 years”.

Judge Wilson said Julia Bamforth showed no remorse and a “complete lack of insight” into her offending given she told a psychologist she had asked the child victim — who the court heard suffered from a cognitive disorder — if he wished to participate in the sexual abuse.

The couple were arrested after police raided their Narara home on Gilda Drive on February 26, 2021, searching for drugs and weapons.

Police seized various knives, a “zombie” sword, knuckledusters, a taser and drugs, along with a mobile phone.

An analysis of the phone uncovered videos of the couple sexually abusing a boy, which prompted police to establish Strike Force Bloomsbury to investigate the full extent of the abuse.

The couple’s sentencing hearing continues.