Sydney’s child sex offenders and their vile crimes revealed
Their heinous crimes have been aired in courts across Sydney. Here is a list of some of the city’s convicted child sex offenders who have attacked our most vulnerable.
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They’ve preyed on our city’s most vulnerable and their despicable acts have been aired in courts across Sydney.
These are some of Sydney’s convicted child sex offenders and what happened when they faced the music.
SHANE ANDREW MATTHEWS
Convicted
Former assistant principal and once-popular teacher Shane Andrew Matthews was jailed in 2018 for sexually abusing 15 young boys in Sydney’s southwest.
The Bradbury man groomed his victims, aged between 10 and 12, with fake classroom money and handed out prizes on ‘superhero’ days when he would dress up as self-styled character ‘Captain Obvious’.
He pleaded guilty to 33 counts of child sexual abuse, which mostly took place when he taught at Wattle Grove Public School between 2012 and 2015.
It was revealed in court the young teacher performed sexual acts on students and had them committing acts of indecency on themselves.
Matthews taught at the school before taking up an assistant principal role at Woodland Road Public School in Campbelltown in 2016.
He was sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years.
A notice of intention to appeal against the severity of the sentence was lodged in September 2018, but nothing further was lodged.
In April, he was sentenced to a further four years’ imprisonment to start in 2026, with a non-parole period of two years and five months, after pleading guilty to two additional charges of indecent assault against a person under 16 years of age.
FOUAD HASNA
Convicted
Fouad ‘Fred’ Hasna was sentenced to two years and three months’ jail time after indecently assaulting a boy at Bass Hill Plaza.
The 50-year-old father was cruising the shopping centre — a well-known gay beat — in April 2017 when the incident happened.
A Sydney court heard he followed a 12-year-old boy into the toilets and masturbated in a cubicle directly opposite the boy’s.
Hasna then exposed himself to the boy before groping his genitals and forcing the boy’s head towards his penis.
When the boy resisted, Hasna slapped him and forced the boy’s hand on his genitals.
Judge Robyn Tupman found the former hospitality worker had “misread the situation” and was not a risk to the community as a paedophile.
He pleaded guilty to counts of indecently assaulting a child under 16.
STUART ROBERT VAN DYKEN
Found guilty, awaiting sentence
Former inner west high school teacher Stuart Robert Van Dyken was found guilty of having sexual intercourse with a student.
The Leppington man had pleaded not guilty to having sexual intercourse with a child under special care but was convicted in June.
During his trial, the court heard the then 51-year-old was speaking with a female student in his office when he asked her to give him oral sex and meet him in a nearby classroom in 2018.
The victim told the court she felt pressured and was unable to escape.
Van Dyken had claimed the victim fabricated the allegations out of spite, but the judge found his testimony was unreliable and he had lied to police about photos of the girl which were stored on a locked app on his mobile phone.
He will be sentenced on August 28 at Downing Centre District Court.
STEPHEN JOHN HARMER
Convicted
The Prestons man was jailed in 2017 for multiple historical child sex offences targeting young girls over a 20-year period.
Harmer was found guilty of five counts of aggravated sexual assault against a victim under the age of 16 years and two counts of indecent assault where a victim is under the age of 10 years.
The then 62-year-old was also convicted of common assault and possessing child abuse material.
His five victims were girls aged between five and 12 years old, with the assaults occurring in Warwick Farm, Ingleburn, Lurnea and Airds between 1992 and 2012.
Harmer was sentenced to an aggregate term of 16 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 11 years. He will be eligible for parole in 2026.
BLAKE MICHAEL ROSS
Convicted
Kirrawee man Blake Michael Ross was jailed for six months in 2017 for having sex with two young girls at different locations in Sydney.
The aspiring paramedic was placed on the child sex offenders’ registry after he was found guilty of having sexual intercourse twice with a 15-year-old girl in Helensburgh in mid-2015 and committing an indecent act against her.
He also committed two indecent acts against a 14-year-old girl in Tempe and Kirrawee.
Ross was originally sentenced to at least eight months’ imprisonment but won an appeal in the NSW District Court.
He was also sentenced to supervision by Community Corrections with education on child sexual assault upon his release from jail in 2018.
Last year he was placed on a good behaviour bond for failing to comply with his reporting conditions.
BRIAN ALAN BOWDIDGE
Convicted
Convicted paedophile Brian Alan Bowdidge's history of sexual offending dates back to 1980 when the then 20-year-old indecently assaulted a five-year-old girl at a Shoalhaven hospital.
In 1991, he was convicted of having sex with a nine-year-old intellectually disabled girl, attacking her “just for something to do.”
A decade later, in 2001, the serial sex offender was sentenced to a minimum three years in jail for raping an eight-year-old girl.
Bowdidge, who has an intellectual disability, was placed on a four-year Extended Supervision Order last December with 47 conditions while he lives in the community.
A campaign driven by Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone last March also saw Bowdidge relocated from state government housing in Smithfield.
“Our city has more than 52 schools and is built on families and I want it to be a paedophile free zone,” Cr Carbone wrote in a letter to eight NSW Government representatives at the time.
GAVIN MALCOLM DUNCAN
Convicted
Jamisontown man Gavin Malcolm Duncan was jailed in June after having sex with a female student three times while employed as a teacher at Katoomba High School.
A Sydney court heard Duncan paid for an Uber to drop the 17-year-old girl off at his Glenmore Park home so they could have sex after they began texting outside of school hours.
The pair had sex three times over three weeks at his home, with Duncan telling his victim at point to wear a skirt to school the next day so he could “f*** her in the classroom”.
Police began investigating after Duncan confessed to a fellow teacher.
During a hearing in June, his victim told the court her life had “hit rock bottom” as a result of his offending.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of having sexual intercourse with a person in his care and was sentenced to at least seven months behind bars, with an additional eight months on parole.
RAYMOND BARRY CORNWALL
Convicted
Convicted child molester and rapist Raymond Barry Cornwall served 14 years in jail for raping female victims as young as 13 at knifepoint in Sydney’s west in the 1990s.
In 2007, he sparked a statewide manhunt after taking off his surveillance bracket within hours of his release from prison.
The serial sex offender has since come back before the courts.
Last month, the 65-year-old admitted to having 19 images containing child abuse material on his mobile phone while he was on a supervision order in September last year.
He pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
A Sydney court heard he had severe mental health issues including depressive disorder and chronic personality disorder.
He will be sentenced later this month.
TROY JOHNSON
Convicted, appealing sentence
Woongarrah man Troy Johnson was convicted of dragging a young girl into bushland and sexually assaulting her on the way to school on the Central Coast in 2017.
A Gosford court heard the pig hunter had donned camouflage before attacking his victim and later bragged to a friend about his sickening act.
Johnson set upon the young girl in Narara bushland in an ordeal that lasted about an hour after planning his attack for weeks.
He told a friend at the time he had found a “good spot because there are lots of school girls walking past”.
Last year the married father-of-three pleaded guilty to 10 offences, including the attack on the 12-year-old girl as she walked to school in May 2017 and other sex offences against an 11-year-old girl between August 2016 and January 2017.
Dubbed the “ghillie suit rapist”, Johnson was sentenced to a maximum 28 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 21 years.
He is appealing the sentence.
ANTHONY SAMPIERI
Convicted, intends to appeal sentence
A violent drug addict who had come before the courts for raping a woman in 2012, Anthony Sampieri was sentenced to life in prison for raping a seven-year-old in a Kogarah dance studio toilet.
The girl was found bound, gagged and half naked in the cubicle with the predator, who abused her for more than half an hour, in November 2018.
His sick attack was interrupted when two men rushed into the bathroom in search of the girl after the child’s mother noticed she was missing.
One of men was wounded with the knife Sampieri had held against the girl’s throat during the attack as they wrestled the rapist.
He was sentenced to life in prison, becoming the first person in NSW to be jailed for life for a sexual attack on a child.
In February he filed a notice of intention to appeal the sentence and has since been granted a time extension — until August 12 — to lodge an appeal.
CHRISTOPHER IRWIN
Convicted, intends to appeal sentence
Christopher Irwin watched his seven-year-old victim rollerblading in a Macquarie Fields street before approaching her with the intention of bringing to life a scene from a fantasy story featuring sadism, bestiality and humiliation.
The Macquarie Fields man led her inside an empty home in May 2018, locked the door, unbuttoned the girl’s pants and pulled them down before taking his own trousers off.
He later admitted he planned to have sex with her.
Irwin’s sordid plans were interrupted when the child’s grandmother and male neighbours forced their way into the house and attacked the predator before police arrived and arrested him.
He had previously been convicted and placed on the Child Protection Register in 2014 after searching ‘kiddie rape porn’ and ‘school kid rape’ on Google.
Irwin was sentenced to an aggregate term of 10 years behind bars for two counts of failing to comply with a reporting obligation, sexually touch child under ten and take or detain child with intent to commit a serious indictable offence.
In April he filed a notice of intention to appeal the sentence.