Graeme Barwick: Child sex offender jailed for nine years

A child sex offender who abused a minor for three years wept and vowed to protest his innocence “until the day he dies” after he was jailed.

A child predator who subjected a minor to years of sexual abuse has continued to deny his reign of terror right up until he was led away in handcuffs into a jail cell on Thursday.

Paedophile Greame William Barwick has been assessed as “very low-risk” of sexually assaulting children again when he is released from prison as a court was told disturbing details of his offending and his “traumatising” time on remand.

Barwick, 65, was found guilty at trial earlier this year of raping and sexually assaulting a child from the age of seven until they were 10.

Barwick, in giving evidence at the Downing Centre District Court, said he had been threatened at a “cockroach infested” Parklea Correctional Centre where one inmate defecated in his cell and another claimed he would “f*** him up”.

Some of the details heard in open court on Thursday were too graphic to publish.

The screams he hears at night from his cell, and fears he would be bashed in his sleep, made the experience “traumatising”, the court heard.

The court was told of how Barwick crept into the victim’s bed at night before abusing the child.

Some of the details aired in open court on Thursday of what Barwick did to the youngster are too graphic to publish.

The Downing Centre District Court heard a “large magnitude” of character references, as well as Barwick himself, protest that the former Qantas worker is innocent.

The significant number of supporters willing to write their support to the court led Judge Kate Traill to say that Barwick was unlikely to offend again when released.

Barwick wept from an audiovisual booth at Nowra Correctional Centre as some of the references were read out in open court.

Among them were family friends, teachers, social workers, retired solicitors and a former police officer.

Many of them say the offences were out of character and at odds with the man they knew.

His legal team argued the abuse was “opportunistic” and not planned and in some cases was less serious in comparison with other offenders facing similar charges.

Barwick’s victim said they had been admitted to psych wards three times and self harmed in the years after the attacks.

“I want to be able to think back to when I was younger, of magical memories, of dreams of imagination but my mind can’t take me back to my childhood,” they said in a victim impact statement.

“I will never be able to get those years back it is painful to remember what he did to me.”

Judge Trail sentenced Barwick to a jail term of nine years and six months.

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