Jailed paedophiles in NSW: Child sexual offenders behind bars revealed
They preyed on young boys and girls and even though in some cases it took decades, these convicted child sexual offenders were sent to prison. See the list of the most recent sentences.
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Child sexual offences are on the rise in NSW and with the increase of reporting, more offenders are coming before the courts — and being sent to jail.
According to the latest statistics, in the 12 months leading up to June 2022, a total of 9301 children made reports to NSW Police as victims of a sexual offence.
Across NSW, the rate of sex crimes against children and juveniles increased at an average of 4.2 per cent a year in the past decade.
While the paedophiles come from different backgrounds and areas, people in a position of power over children, like teachers or priests, were more prominent among the offenders.
Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad detective superintendent Jayne Doherty told News Corp that child sex offenders “come from all walks of life, all socio-economic back grounds and all levels of education”.
A number of paedophiles have been jailed in the past couple of years across NSW. Here’s how they ended up there.
Robert van Gestel
In October 2022, paedophile Robert van Gestel was sentenced to six years in jail for sexually assaulting three young girls dating back to the 1970s.
The now 78-year-old was found guilty of eight counts of sexual and indecent assault after a jury trial where three women accused him of the sex offences when they were under the age of 10.
This included five counts of committing acts of indecency on girls aged as young as four on Sydney’s northern beaches.
During the sentencing hearing, 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.
Judge Latham labelled van Gestel’s crimes “opportunistic” but also “predatory”, and said that he had taken advantage of their vulnerable young age.
He was given a non-parole period of three years and six months. With time served, van Gestel will be eligible for parole in January 2026.
Van Gestel has lodged an appeal to fight his conviction. A date is yet to be set for his appeal.
Kevin Joseph Jewell
The former Marist Brother was sentenced in May 2021 for disturbing child sex offences he committed almost 50 years ago.
Kevin Joseph Jewell admitted to molesting boys in his class in the 1960s, some as young as nine, when teaching at the Marist College in Eastwood and at another in Randwick.
His victims told the court of the emotional damage they suffered as a result of the sexual abuse at the hands of Jewell.
Jewell pleaded guilty to 19 counts of indecent assault. Judge Ian Bourke sentenced Jewell to seven years jail and he will be eligible for parole in 2025.
Gaye Grant
In December 2022, former Illawarra Catholic schoolteacher Gaye Grant was jailed for sexually exploiting a vulnerable boy over two years during the 1970s.
The 76-year-old was sentenced to six years and nine months in jail after previously pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
Grant taught at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Albion Park for more than two decades, where she took advantage of the boy.
Documents tendered to court revealed Grant raped the boy multiple times and professed her love for him on a piece of scrap paper in which she begged him to take her back after he ended their “relationship”.
The initial offending included Grant urging the boy to fondle and suck on her breast and on another occasion she masturbated the naked boy in her bathroom.
He made a police report decades later in 2021, sparking an investigation with a surveillance device warrant to tap calls between the man and Grant.
The sentence included a non-parole period of three years and four months, meaning Grant could be eligible for parole in April, 2026 – four months before her 80th birthday.
Neil Duncan
Pony club paedophile Neil Duncan was convicted by a jury on June 2 in Queanbeyan District Court of eight counts of sexually touching three girls aged between 10 and 16 in 2018 and 2020.
The offences happened at a campsite in Kosciuszko National Park and at his home in Bega.
After sentencing delays due to undergoing surgery to remove his prostate in September, the 67-year-old was jailed for up to five years, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years.
He will be eligible for parole in 2025.
Grant Harden
Sydney soccer coach Grant Harden was arrested as part of national child abuse investigation Operation Arkstone in 2020, where detectives found a shocking 277 videos of sexual assaults against seven children, aged between five and eight, on his phone.
Harden, who pleaded guilty to 179 offences in July 2021, was sentenced to 30 years jail for the horrific assaults as well as sending and receiving child abuse material which spanned two-and-a-half years to mid-2020.
According to agreed facts, Harden would send videos of his abuse to other paedophiles under three different code names across various chat platforms, including Snapchat. There, he posted more than 100 advertisements asking to receive pedophilic videos and images.
Under the name “Baddad03” he posted the advertisement: “28Pervy Dad Looking to Chat with Under 14, or if you’re with a little boy. Any perv dads, big bros, uncles, teachers, babysitters etc. Must be willing to show boy.”
Daniel Hanson
Singer Daniel ‘Jimmy’ Hanson, of Newcastle, used his band status to prey on young females to commit sexual acts with them.
Of the 14 victims, aged between 12 and 22, most were children.
Hanson, the lead singer of Newcastle band ‘Falling for Beloved’, faced a staggering 111 charges. In 2020 he pleaded guilty to a fraction of those, with 85 charges being dismissed and three charges of common assault taken into account on sentencing.
Two other charges he was sentenced for were an adult maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child, a charge that was strengthened following the royal commission and now carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Hanson pleaded guilty to 23 charges of child sex and indecent assault offences and was jailed for 28 years, with a non-parole period of 21 years.
He won’t be eligible for release until August, 2040.
Graeme William Barwick
Paedophile Graeme William Barwick was found guilty at trial in 2021 of raping and sexually assaulting a child from the age of seven until they were 10.
He abused a minor for three years and vowed to protest his innocence “until the day he dies” after he was jailed in 2021.
Barwick’s victim said they had been admitted to psych wards three times and self harmed in the years after the attacks and said: “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.
Mark Richards
A Riverina school employee was sentenced in 2021 for grooming a teenage student by sending pictures of him masturbating and his sex toy collection through Snapchat.
Mark Richards pleaded guilty to eight offences including grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity, aggravated sexual intercourse with child (aged between 14 and 16) and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The court heard Richards met the victim as coach of an all-girls school sports team he coached and began messaging her on Snapchat.
The court heard in early 2020 Richards told the teenager he wanted to have sex with her and asked her to bring a towel to a park.
At the park the school employee kissed and groped the victim before attempting to have sex with her. When that didn’t go to plan, he looked at her and ejaculated on the ground.
Richards was sentenced to six years and six months with a non-parole period of four years and four months. He will be eligible for parole in April 2025.
Bryan Michael Grange
A western Sydney man admitted in court to raping children and having a collection of tens of thousands of abuse images and videos.
Bryan Michael Grange, 38, was living just streets away from a primary school when he downloaded tens of thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse from an online paid child abuse subscription service.
He was arrested in October 2019 following a tip-off to the Australian Federal Police, who raided his suburban home and uncovered a stash of child abuse material stored on laptops, data storage devices and DVDs.
Grange pleaded guilty to having sex with a child under 10, using a child under 14 to create child pornography, indecently assaulting a child under 16, possessing child abuse material, using a carriage service to access child pornography and using a carriage service to transmit child pornography.
Grange will be in prison until at least 2044 with Judge Kara Shead sentencing him to 30 years’ prison for child sexual abuse as well as four and a half years for possessing child abuse material.
In August 2022, Grange lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal, claiming it is “manifestly excessive”. The appeal judgment — which went before Justice Robert Beech-Jones, Justice Geoffrey Bellew and Justice Desmond Fagan — has been reserved.
Justin Kenneth Radford
A Central Coast man who filmed himself sexually abusing a young boy before he was caught with thousands of “horrific and depraved” child abuse images was sentenced to 18 years prison with a non-parole period of 12 years.
Former Nine Network tape library assistant Justin Kenneth Radford was charged with more than 100 offences but later pleaded guilty to 17, including seven counts of sexually touching a young boy, four counts of using the child to produce child abuse material and disseminating it and thousands of images and videos of child abuse and bestiality material to 19 separate individuals.
The court heard when the AFP raided Radford’s home they seized three mobile phones and a laptop containing an estimated 4416 videos and 11,151 photos of child sex abuse and bestiality material with 56 per cent of the files rated “category 4”, being the second worst type conceivable.
With time served since his arrest he will be eligible for parole in February, 2032.
Robert Beavis
A Hunter life saving member for almost three decades pleaded guilty to a historical charge of indecent assault and two charges of sexual intercourse with a person under 10 in 2021.
Robert Beavis was jailed for 10 years with a non-parole period of five years and six months for charges relating to two girls — aged eight and nine — at Belmont between 2003 and 2006.
The court heard Beavis in December 2017 went to trial for the sexual and indecent assault of a 10-year-old girl in 2004.
For that matter he was found guilty and jailed for seven years, where that sentence was set to expire in February 2022, except for the fact that the new sentence in 2021 resulted in him staying behind bars until at least June 2024.
Dale Whiteman
In 2021, a junior rugby league referee with “deviant sexual interests” toward young girls was jailed for 16 years, after grooming and having underage sex with multiple teen girls over a 15-year period.
Dale Whiteman, 32, was sentenced on 15 charges, including having sexual intercourse with a person aged 14 to 16, possessing child abuse material, aggravated indecent assault and using a carriage service to groom a child under 16 years for sex.
Whiteman used his connections with the sport to meet his 22 victims across the Illawarra and Sutherland Shire.
He contacted the girls, aged between 13 and 16, via social media platforms and text messages, with his offending dating back to 2006.
He was first arrested in December 2019 and released on bail. He was then hit with additional charges related to a USB police uncovered at his home.
The device contained folders under the names of more than 70 different girls, each folder containing screenshots of texts and photos of them either naked or in their underwear.
Whiteman was jailed for 16 years with a non-parole period of 11 years.
With time served he will be eligible for parole in 2031.
Alex Chak Lau
The convicted paedophile had his jail sentence increased from 10 years in jail, with a non-parole period of six years and six months, to 11 years and three months for his attacks on eight children.
In 2021, Alex Chak Lau, then aged 50, was initially sentenced but after the Court of Criminal Appeal case in 2022, he was hit with more time in prison.
The Bluff Point resident pleaded guilty to 18 charges including sexual intercourse with a child, indecent assault, aggravated breaking and entering, and detaining a person with intent for the crimes between 2008 and 2016.
Lau will first be eligible for parole in February 2031.
– AAP
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EARLIER CONVICTIONS
Grant Davies
In 2016, paedophile dance teacher Grant Davies was jailed for 24 years, with a non-parole period of 18 years, for sexually abusing nine children over more than a decade.
Davies was sentenced for 28 child pornography and sex abuse charges against eight girls and one boy, all aged between 9 and 15, with the court hearing that victims felt pressured to comply so they weren’t placed in the back for performances at his RG Dance Studio.
The court heard Davies sexually abused victims at his home, during private dance lessons and in one instance chased a girl, aged 11 or 12, around the studio before abusing her.
John Joseph Farrell
Former Catholic priest John Joseph Farrell was convicted of 62 counts of abuse against children and sentenced in 2016 to 29 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 18 years.
Farrell was found guilty of 62 offences involving rapes and indecent assaults against three girls and nine boys over nearly a decade in the northern NSW towns of Moree and Tamworth.
As well as the 62 historical sexual crimes against children, a further 17 offences were taken into account during sentencing.
The assaults occurred between 1979 and 1988, and included female and male victims.
He had raped one victim on the church’s altar and targeted others in a local swimming pool and during car trips to nearby parishes.
Farrell is eligible for parole in 2033.
Neale Valentine
A former Scout leader who sexually abused seven boys, sexually assaulting some after he lured them to complete chores for pocket money at his home, was in 2021, sentenced to seven-and-a-half years jail with a non-parole period of five years.
Neale Valentine pleaded guilty to 12 child sex abuse charges including having sexual intercourse and indecently assaulting boys as young as 12 when he was a Scout leader at Castlecrag in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.
Valentine is eligible for parole in January, 2026.
Mario Aliverti
In 2020, ex Scout leader Mario ‘Henry’ Aliverti was jailed for more than 31 years for numerous child sex offences spanning two decades.
He committed 12 child sexual offences including sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10, aggravated indecent assault and gross indecency.
During his time in the Scouts in south west Sydney in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Aliverti had direct access to children with no adult supervision.
He abused one boy over four years while another was abused over three years beginning when the child was 11.
He would use Scout camps and the certain Scout hall buildings to isolate boys from the group. He would then perform sex acts on them and make them have sex with him.
He will spend a minimum of 21 years in jail.
Anthony Caruana
The former Catholic priest was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of child sex offences against dozens of boys at a South Highlands college dating back to the 1980s.
In 2021, Caruana was found guilty of 26 historic child sex offences. Caruana abused 12 boys aged between 11 and 15 during the 1980s while working at Chevalier College in Burradoo, a Catholic school near Bowral, run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts.
The charges he was found guilty on include multiple counts of assault and act of indecency on person under 16, indecent assault on person under 16 under authority, and homosexual intercourse teacher of pupil aged over 10 but under 18.
His non-parole period will end in July 2031.
DIED SERVING SENTENCE IN JAIL
Francis William Cable
Notorious paedophile principal Francis William Cable, the former Marist brother known as Br Romuald who abused more than 20 schoolboys over more than 15 years, died in September 2022 while serving his sentence.
Cable was sent from Long Bay jail to Prince of Wales Hospital to be treated for his suspected heart disease. The 90-year-old died a short time later.
He was serving two sentences for child sex offences and awaiting a trial on more allegations in 2023.
The former Hunter Marist brother was first sentenced in 2015 to a maximum 16 years’ jail for sexually assaulting 19 schoolboys in NSW over a 15-year period.
Cable preyed on the boys while he taught at Catholic schools at Hamilton and Maitland, as well as in Sydney, between 1960 and 1974.
In 2019, Cable was sentenced for a further 19 offences and had his non-parole period increased until at least 2027 at the time.
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