Melbourne paedophiles: grubs in east Robert Whitehead, Timothy Richardson and Brendan Cohen
He was the evil monster who preyed on children at one of Melbourne’s most iconic tourist attractions. The Puffing Billy paedophile — Robert Whitehead — is one of the vile creeps who attacked our city’s most vulnerable.
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They’re the depraved criminals whose vile acts make Melburnians’ skin crawl.
Rapists and child molesters, monsters hiding under the guise of trusted teachers, close relatives and community volunteers.
We’ve compiled a list of the most despicable convicted paedophiles to have lurked in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Read on, but be warned; these men’s revolting behaviour is enough to keep any loving parent awake at night.
Robert Whitehead
He was the evil monster who preyed on children at one of Melbourne’s most iconic tourist attractions.
Robert Whitehead, 84, known as the Puffing Billy paedophile, abused six boys between the 1960s-1980s while working as a volunteer at the famous railway.
His crimes included raping one boy with a garden hose and forcing another to sign a lewd questionnaire with his own blood before he tied him naked to a ladder.
Whitehead told the boy he looked “like Jesus on the cross” before leaving him tied up alone for 90 minutes.
The Puffing Billy paedophile pleaded guilty to 24 child sex offences and was sentenced in 2015 to eight years’ jail by the County Court.
He died in prison after serving just two months behind bars.
Barry Watson
Barry Francis Watson worked as a youth leader for the Church of England Boys’ Society in Park Orchards during the 1960s and 1970s.
He was jailed in December 2013 for abusing boys aged between nine and 13.
Court documents revealed how he would order his victims to strip naked before he assaulted them.
The attacks took place at the society’s hall at Domeney Reserve and at his Park Orchards home.
Watson, 78, was due to face fresh allegations of historic child sex crimes in July last year but committed suicide days before his scheduled court appearance.
He was expected to plead not guilty and a court spokeswoman said last year the matters would be permanently adjourned as a result of his death.
Mark Odell
Former Ashwood High School student Mark Odell – a court-appointed pseudonym – was jailed in 2018 after cops busted him in possession of hundreds of child abuse images and videos.
The 33-year-old was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail by the County Court, with Judge John Carmody describing Odell’s online chats as “depraved” and “abhorrent”.
West Australian police sent transcripts of Odell’s Skype chats to Victoria Police detailing explicit and violent acts committed against children.
He also shared images with other paedophiles and when police raided his Hampton home they found images depicting boys aged as young as six months old.
“The chat content can properly be described as depraved, violent, abhorrent and disturbing to the extent of sexual violence debasing young boys,” Judge John Carmody said at the time.
“These children are manipulated by cruel adults who subject them to degrading and distressing experiences.”
Odell was also placed on a four year good behaviour bond.
Brendan Cohen
Grubby high school teacher Brendan Cohen was banned from working in education ever again after he pleaded guilty to “upskirting” school girls and their mothers.
Cohen, 52, covertly filmed up the skirts of pupils on the grounds of Bialik College and Mount Scopus Memorial College where he worked.
He pleaded guilty to the charges, as well as to creating child pornography by photoshopping children’s faces onto adult images, at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in February 2018.
The court heard Cohen also targeted his pupils’ mothers by filming up their skirts during parent-teacher interviews.
A Bialik College network engineer tipped police off after he found disturbing material on Cohen’s hard drive, and police later discovered more than 80 upskirting films on his devices.
Cohen was sentenced to five months’ jail but appealed his sentence.
Kenneth Palliser
Mitcham man Kenneth Palliser hid 450 child pornographic images among Christmas presents at eastern suburbs shopping centres.
A Magistrates’ Court heard he’d been stressed over his job and anxious about a cancer scare when he planted the photos of naked boys and girls among soft toys, clothing, cards and gift boxes at Forest Hill Chase, Doncaster, Eastland and Knox shopping centres in 2006.
The 54-year-old was convicted in 2007 of theft, making child pornography, knowingly possess child pornography and contaminating goods.
The theft charge involved stealing girls’ bathers from a Kmart store.
And he added the words “Merry Christmas” to the photos, which the court heard he planted for adult men to find.
Instead, the pictures were found by staff and customers aged as young as 10.
Palliser was handed a suspended sentence of one year in jail and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.
He was later jailed for six years in 2015 after he created a computer virus that posted child porn images on students’ Facebook pages.
Kenneth Charles Marshall
Ferntree Gully predator Kenneth Marshall was jailed in 2013 for historical sex offences against young vulnerable boys.
A County Court jury found him guilty of numerous charges of sexual penetration and indecent acts with a child under 16.
The 62-year-old’s victims included an intellectually disabled boy he met at a pool hall as well as a boy who later told the court he looked up to Marshall because of his troubled home life.
In an emotional victim impact statement, the victim told the court he’d moved in with Marshall believing life with him would be “easy”.
Instead he said he felt “angry” and disappointed the adults around him failed to protect him.
He also told the court he now found it difficult to trust anyone.
Marshall was jailed for five years and 10 months with a non-parole period of three years and three months.
Tim Richardson
Paedophile teacher Tim Richardson, 82, was jailed in April last year for raping and indecently assaulting boys at his Harkaway farm.
County Court Judge Paul Higham likened his vile acts, committed between 1963 and 1973, to those alleged to have been committed at Michael Jackson’s Neverland.
Many of his victims were Dandenong High School students and some claimed staff knew about the abuse but didn’t stop it.
Richardson worked at 18 schools throughout his career including Ferntree Gully Tech, Gippsland Grammar and Korumburra Secondary College before he retired in 2006.
He also held numerous personal and professional roles that ensured he had ready access to children including volunteering as a Scout Leader and a junior football coach.
Richardson also fostered about 60 children between 1978 and 2012.
Judge Higham sentenced him to eight years’ jail with a minimum of four years and nine months, but Richardson died of a heart attack after serving less than four months’ jail.
William Clendinnen
William Clendinnen, a pseudonym, once harboured dreams of becoming a politician.
Instead, the 56-year-old alcoholic was sentenced by the County Court in December to 10 years’ jail after pleading guilty to abusing his niece.
Clendinnen’s crimes against the youngster started in 2009 when he was living with his mother in Armadale and the girl was just three and half years old.
The court heard Clendinnen would touch and penetrate his niece during family gatherings or when her parents brought her over to be babysat.
He also inappropriately touched the girl’s eight-year-old friend during a trip to the park on Boxing Day in 2014.
Clendinnen’s brother and sister-in-law only became aware of his disgusting behaviour after their daughter complained to them about feeling pain in her groin.
Clendinnen must serve at least six years and three months’ jail before becoming eligible for parole.
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