Peter White charged with dozens of sex charges against multiple children from the 1980s

A family patriarch allegedly preyed on small children who would visit his home in a small Central Victorian town during the 1980s.

A popular family home in a small town in Central Victoria that attracted lots of young visitors in the 1980s allegedly became a place of recurring child sexual abuse, the Bendigo Magistrates Court was told on Monday afternoon.

The father of the home Peter White, a woodfire heater installer now aged 72, was arrested on Friday and charged with assaulting five children over a number of years.

He was charged with 45 offences including gross indecency with a child under 16, indecent assault of a child under 16 and sexual penetration of a child aged under 10.

The alleged acts occurred between 1982 and 1988.

None of the alleged victims were related to Mr White, who has since relocated to Sunbury. The court was told he still had business interests in the Central Victorian town.

Peter White faced Bendigo Magistrates Court on historic child sex offences from the 1980s.

Lead investigator acting Detective Sergeant Scott Tuddenham told the court four of the alleged victims were female and one was male.

He said at least one of the children had been on holidays with Mr White and his family to locations around Victoria, when they were allegedly assaulted.

The court was told the allegations included that Mr White penetrated some of the children with his fingers, exposed himself to them on multiple occasions, and forced a young girl into performing a sex act upon him.

Det Sgt Tuddenham said it was also alleged Mr White had shown one of the children a pornographic video and when she objected he instead played The Killing Fields, scenes of which were so gruesome that the child was physically sick.

He allegedly repeatedly assaulted her on occasions when she would stay over at the house on sleepovers, the court was told.

Mr White’s solicitor told the court the woodfire heater installer needed bail so he could go back to running his small business.

Police prosecutor Peter Clarke opposed the bail application, but it was granted with conditions including that Mr White not enter the small town except for business purposes and that he surrender his passport.

He will return to court in December for a committal mention.