Judge compares paedophile teacher’s Harkaway farm to Michael Jackson’s Neverland
A farm where one of Victoria’s worst paedophile teachers raped several boys has been compared to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch by a County Court judge, with one victim saying “if it was not for the offending, (the farm) was heaven”.
South East
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A farm where one of Victoria’s worst paedophile teachers raped several boys has been compared to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch by a County Court judge.
Timothy Richardson, 82, was found guilty last December of raping and indecently assaulting six students.
He committed the crimes at his Harkaway farm between 1963 and 1973 while a teacher at Dandenong High School.
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The offending commenced within a year of Richardson purchasing the property.
The future of the farm, estimated to be worth $1 million, was the subject of a forfeiture application hearing in the County Court yesterday.
If forfeited, the money from the sale of the farm will go towards compensation for Richardson’s victims.
The court heard Richardson made a will in February, leaving the farm to his two sons.
The “tainted” Harkaway property was used as a “lure” and a “tool of seduction” for sexual offending, the court was told.
“The features of the property were used to entice the victims and the school and the parents to give permission,” prosecutor Deborah Mandie said.
“The property was central and isolated and it afforded absolute privacy and freedom.
“It created the opportunity for offending.
“(It was) a rural property with numerous properties used to seduce the boys.
“The property was a character in the story.”
The court heard Richardson’s farm was set up to provide “healthy activities” such as bike riding, swimming, bush walks, tractor riding and feeding cattle.
Richardson would pick the boys up from their homes and drive to the farm for weekend “school sanctioned official excursions”.
One of Richardson’s victims said “if it was not for the offending it (the farm) was heaven”.
Another victim, who was raped by Richardson “80-100” times over a two-year period, felt he was “prostituting myself for two hours each weekend so I could have fun for the rest of the weekend”.
A third victim said “sex education was the price of admission to this great place”.
Judge Paul Higham asked whether Neverland — a reference to Michael Jackson’s Californian estate where the singer was alleged to have raped several children — would be forfeited to which the answer was “certainly”.
“If it was a one-bedroom commission flat, parents wouldn’t have given consent,” he said.
Richardson, who looked asleep at different stages of the hearing, appeared via video link from Hopkins Corrections Centre.
He chuckled when Judge Higham said he would be talking to a school group during the lunch break.
The hearing continues.