Paedophile Robert van Gestel walks out on bail despite tough new laws

Convicted paedophile Robert van Gestel has walked from court on bail again as the state’s tough new bail laws have failed again.

Convicted paedophile Robert van Gestel has walked from court on bail again as the state’s tough new bail laws have failed again.

Justice Peter Garling dismissed a detention application by the prosecution to have father-of-four van Gestel’s bail until he is sentenced in late October.

He was controversially released on bail on June 9 in the District Court despite being convicted of eight charges dating back to the 1970s, including five counts of committing acts of indecency on three girls aged as young as four on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Convicted Paedophile bookkeeper Robert Van Gestel outside court today. Picture: Richard Dobson

The judge said he was not convinced that the only penalty for Van Gestel was a full time jail sentence.

Van Gestel, 78, is the third and final case of convicted paedophiles being granted bail pending sentences that led the government to rush through new laws to allow bail only in special or ­exceptional circumstances.

His counsel Scott Shaudin had argued that special circumstances under the law included if imprisonment would cause hardship to other ­people which it would in this case for his wife of 50 years, Margaret van Gestel, who had said “she would die without him”.

Justice Garling said he would publish his reasons for his decision on Friday at 4pm.

More to come.