‘You are a monster’: Victim watches on as Robert Van Gestel jailed for child sex offences

His controversial release on bail after being found guilty of child sex offences triggered a change in NSW laws. Five months on, paedophile Robert Van Gestel has now been sentenced.

Robert Van Gestel, pictured at Manly Local Court in 2020 following his extradition from Melbourne to face child sex charges. Picture: AAP

A brazen paedophile who sexually assaulted three young girls inside his home has been sentenced to six years in jail, just hours after his first victim labelled the now 78-year-old a “monster” in court and detailed the continuing impact of his crimes almost 50 years on.

The woman, who cannot legally be named but is now in her 50s, said Robert Van Gestel’s predatory behaviour towards her as a seven-year-old child in the mid-1970s left her feeling “dirty, ashamed and humiliated”.

“The abhorrent actions of you, Robert Van Gestel, to me when I was a young, vulnerable child has left me with scars that will forever be a part of my soul,” she said during Van Gestel’s sentencing hearing in the NSW District Court on Friday.

“You shattered my world into a million pieces and I have spent my life picking them up and trying to piece them back together. You are a monster.”

Van Gestel was found guilty of eight counts of sexual and indecent assault following a jury trial earlier this year in which three woman accused him of sexual conduct towards them when they were under the age of 10.

Robert Van Gestel outside the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney in August this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

He continued to maintain his innocence and was controversially allowed to remain on bail ahead of his sentencing, prompting Attorney-General Mark Speakman to intervene and seek an urgent review of the state’s bail laws.

The case, along with that of pony club paedophile Neil Duncan, helped trigger a change in the legislation, and Van Gestel’s bail was revoked in August.

In court on Friday, Judge Megan Latham detailed how Van Gestel digitally penetrated his first victim and forced her hand onto his penis in separate acts while she was visiting his home, then put his finger to his lips in a gesture of silence.

She found the offences were above the mid-range of objective seriousness and set an overall jail sentence of six years, with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

However, Judge Latham found offences against two other young girls committed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in which he kissed the children on the lips, fell short of the threshold for a prison term, and imposed a three year community corrections order.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Latham labelled Van Gestel’s crimes “opportunistic” but also “predatory”, and said that he had taken advantage of their vulnerable young age.

“The offender took whatever opportunity was presented to him to indulge his sexual interest (in the complainants),” she said.

The court heard Van Gestel suffered from multiple medical conditions, including high cholesterol, reflux and an enlarged prostate, for which he was receiving medication in prison.

However he but was yet to receive proper examination or care for a heart-related issue which arose just before he went into custody.

With time served, Van Gestel will be eligible to apply for parole in January 2026.

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