Roger Cheney: Convicted child rapist jailed for peeping into Pagewood family homes

A convicted child rapist took a particular interest in peeping through an eastern suburbs family’s bathroom window – which he did at least three times in a month – in the hope of seeing a child.

Roger David Cheney was convicted of rape of two young girls and sentenced to 25 years in custody.

A convicted violent child rapist took a particular interest in peeping through an eastern suburbs family’s bathroom window – which he did at least three times in a month – in the hope of seeing a child, a court has heard.

Roger Cheney, 67, also peered into the homes of other families in the nearby area – including looking at two children playing – and alarmingly had disposable gloves, tools, four large black zip ties and a soft toy inside his bike crate which he took to each location.

Cheney, who lived at Maroubra, was sentenced to two years in jail with a non-parole period of 18 months in Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

Cheney was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1995 after he was convicted of raping two girls, aged eight and 10, in two separate incidents at Port Macquarie in 1993 while on bail for sexually assaulting an adult woman at a nature reserve in Canberra in 1988, for which he was later convicted.

In 2020, upon his release, the state government applied to place him on an extended supervision order, subjecting him to a number of conditions including not to go to a residence where he knew there was a child living.

Convicted child rapist Roger David Cheney jailed again.

Agreed facts tendered to court said a Pagewood man saw Cheney on a bike with a small white dog at least three times in six months in 2022.

On December 17, the man’s daughter screamed out to her father there was someone at the window.

The man saw Cheney leave on his bike with his dog before he called police, who were told the daughter had told her father she had seen Cheney standing underneath the bathroom window some months prior.

On January 6, a Kingsford resident was alerted to someone standing outside their living room window looking inside the house.

The homeowner ran outside and yelled “what are you doing in my property? Don’t ever come to my house again. Stay away” to which Cheney replied his ball went over the fence.

The man called police and he told them he had seen Cheney two or three times previously, as had his neighbour.

The man’s wife told police two weeks prior, her daughter told her she had seen a man standing in the front yard looking inside the house where she and her brother were playing but the mother did not believe her at the time.

However, data from Cheney’s ankle monitor supported the claims.

Further analysis of the ankle monitor showed Cheney had again approached the first house on January 9 on his bike with his dog where he, without hesitation, climbed over the fence and looked inside the bathroom window for three seconds before he left.

Less than two weeks later on January 18, another Pagewood resident who only lived about 200m away from the first man’s house, received an alert on his home security system that someone was near their front door before the man’s wife saw Cheney leaving through their gate with a dog.

The man looked through his security footage and then went to find Cheney only to see him looking through the fence of the first house.

The man called out to Cheney but he ignored him, put his dog in a bike crate and road off.

Police got CCTV footage before they located more CCTV footage of the first man’s house, which showed Cheney loitered for seven minutes at the fence before he jumped it and walked up to the bathroom window where he peered inside for about 10 seconds, then left.

Cheney was arrested the next day at Maroubra and during a police interview he admitted to attending the Kingsford home but said he was looking for his ball he had lost a few weeks prior.

He claimed he let his dog off the leash to run up and down and said sometimes the dog went to the toilet in people’s yard, including the first house, and he would go retrieve the dog but denied looking through the bathroom window.

Cheney’s bicycle crate had multiple black disposable gloves, a small bag of tools, four large black zip ties, a Piglet soft toy, pyjama bag and receipt for binoculars, the documents said.

He told police they were all related to his bike or for his dog.

Cheney pleaded guilty to three counts of peep or pry; failing to comply with extended supervision order; two counts of unlawful entry onto inclosed lands and stalking.

The court heard Cheney’s actions were “opportunistic” and he was remorseful.

Magistrate Julie Huber said Cheney “hoped there would be a child” in the bathroom.