Bendigo’s worst sex offenders in court named

From an electrician who preyed on a teenage girl to a doctor who broke the trust on a young patient, these are Bendigo’s worst sex offenders.

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They’re the depraved criminals whose vile acts made Bendigo’s skin crawl.

Here are some of Bendigo’s most shocking sex offenders.

Heath Ross

Electrician Heath Ross was jailed in May for a minimum of three years and three months after sexually assaulting a child multiple times.

He pleaded guilty to rolled-up charges of sexual penetration of a child under 16 earlier this year.

The offending started when Ross was 22 and his victim was 14 after they messaged each other on Facebook after meeting in 2011.

Ross sexually penetrated his victim in various locations multiple times over a 14-month period, and did not use a condom.

The victim became pregnant but miscarried, the court heard.

Ross, who was made a registered sex offender for life, was jailed for a maximum six years and three months jail.

Heath Ross.

Jeremy Gay

Convicted child sex offender Jeremy Gay was jailed in February for one day and fined $1000 after he started dating a 17-year-old girl he had met online.

In February this year when he told officers the pair were dating.

Due to child sex offences he was found guilty of in 2019, the 24-year-old must report all contact with children to police – but he didn’t on this occasion.

He was arrested and taken to Bendigo police station.

Police searched his phone and found Gay had changed his name to ‘Jeremy Anderson’ on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook to contact children.

Obiyo Nwigwe

Former Bendigo doctor Obiyo Nwigwe was jailed in July for at least four years and three months after he confessed his child sex offending to his evangelical pastor.

The Nigerian-born emergency department doctor would later tell his 13-year-old victim she was “amazing”.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual penetration of a child and one count of disseminating an indecent image to a child.

The doctor’s sickening crimes took place over 15 days in early 2020, when his wife was in England finishing her studies and when he was caring for the couple’s three children.

The court heard Nwigwe confessed his child sex crimes to Pastor Michael Goyne from the Enjoy Church in Ballarat in the days before the victim and her parents went to Ballarat police.

He was also recorded in a police sting telling his victim that sex with her was “amazing”.

“If you were above 18 then you would be perfect,” he said.

Joel Maltese

Bendigo IT student Joel Maltese was jailed for a minimum 12 months in March after pleading guilty to 12 charges including procuring a child for sex and engage in a sexual activity with a child outside Australia.

The 27-year-old degraded and abused multiple child sex slaves after claiming he hypnotised his victims via the internet.

Maltese handed himself into police in January last year after telling an elder at his church he was addicted to child pornography.

He told police he taught himself how to hypnotise young children online into performing degrading and vile sexual acts.

Maltese also instructed some victims to drink urine, go to school with a vibrator in and without undies.

Andrew Garner

Cohuna’s Andrew Garner turned his family’s bathroom into a den of horrific abuse and told his young victims no one would believe their “lies”.

The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys more than three decades ago in the Country Court in July.

Garner was 14 when the abuse, which lasted six years, started.

Judge John Smallwood said Garner would have been dealt with in the Children’s Court had he been caught during the period of his offending.

He gave Garner a three month conviction with a 24 month suspended sentence – making an effective sentence of 12 months in prison.

Andrew Garner.

Noel Russell

Moama sheep shearer Noel Russell was jailed for 12 years in September after he was found guilty of sexually abusing a child during the 1980s.

The already convicted sexual pedophile drummed his fingers on the prison table as he was sentenced for sexual crimes against his victim.

After more than a decade behind bars the now 76-year-old man was found guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing a boy.

The shearer gave the children money for lollies during the 1970s and 80s.

The court heard, while his father was working on a shed Russell showed the boy his rifle before threatening to shoot his dad unless he stayed silent.

He will be able to apply for parole after eight years and six months.

Felony Williams

Felony Williams caught a train to Bendigo before sexually assaulting a teenage girl he met on Snapchat.

He was sentenced to a three-year community corrections order in August for the incident which occurred in February last year.

The pair visited a shopping centre where a friend of the victim told Williams the girl was only 14 and it was illegal for them to be in a relationship.

“It was OK as long as the police didn’t find out,” Williams said.

Williams also plied his victim and another girl with drugs, the court was told.

He sexually assaulted his victim at the railway station before catching a train back to Melbourne.

Williams returned to Bendigo two days later where he forced the girl to have six with him at the abandoned Gillies pie factory.

He was registered as a sex offender for life.

Felony Williams.