Hayden Peters: Police slammed for handling of ‘sickening’ child abuser

A judge has called on Victoria Police to investigate their “troubling” failure to prevent a child abuser from continuing after he had already been arrested and charged.

A judge has slammed Victoria Police for their handling of a case against a “sickening” child abuser after he continued to offend while on bail.

Hayden Peters, 32, appeared before the County Court in Ballarat on Wednesday where he was jailed for 18 years for the sexual abuse of five children between 2016 and 2020.

The “lonely” man was convicted on 17 charges including sexual assault of minor, producing child abuse material and distributing abuse material online.

Peters showed no emotion as Judge Gregory Lyon spoke at length about the “callous, depraved and brutal” acts he inflicted upon the children – all aged between 20 months and eight years old.

“The seriousness of these offences is immediately apparent,” he said.

“This was a grave breach of trust against parents and children alike.”

Three parents of his victims provided victim impact statements to the court, which Judge Lyon said described their “profound grief and anguish” for their children.

“Tellingly the mother of … speaks at the betrayal and manipulation of her family,” he said.

“You inflicted your sickening choices on them. I have evidence of the actual harm caused to these children.”

Police began an investigation in 2018 after they were notified by international agencies he was distributing child abuse material online.

More than 10,500 child abuse images and videos were found on his devices, and investigators were able to identify Peters in “some” of the material.

One victim’s family came forward, and he was arrested and charged soon after.

Peters was “undeterred” by his arrest, continuing to distribute abuse material online and offend against two victims in 2020.

In total five victims were identified by police, including one he had repeatedly abused between the ages of three and eight.

Judge Lyon slammed the handling of the case, questioning why more wasn’t done to deny him access to children while in the community.

“I say this to Victoria Police, you will want to have a pretty good look at how this happened,” he said.

“I find the sequence of the events troubling. How Mr Peters was able to commit further offences and why there wasn’t further monitoring of him.

At least on face value it requires further inquiry and investigation.”

The court heard Peters had suffered significant “psychological distress” in prison since he was remanded in early 2021 and had put on 50kg of body weight.

The former potato harvester is “isolated and lonely” in prison and has recently been diagnosed with major mental health disorders.

He was registered as a serious sex offender for life and jailed for 18 years with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.

When released he intends to live in Werribee with his mother.

Judge Lyon thanked the parents of Peters victims for helping to bring him to justice.

“I understand the sentencing process is not anything parent’s find satisfactory,” he said.

“The reason for this is we don’t have retributive justice in Victoria, there’s a lot of considerations I have to make.

I commend you for coming forward and making such powerful impact statements.”