Payouts tipped over vile abuse at hands of Puffing Billy sex monster Robert Whitehead
Victims of evil Puffing Billy paedophile Robert Whitehead are continuing to launch legal action against the state claiming it knew he posed a serious risk to children but did nothing to stop him.
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Victims of evil Puffing Billy paedophile Robert Whitehead are continuing to launch legal action against the state with claims now tipped to cost Victorians millions of dollars.
A string of claims have already been lodged across Victorian courts with the latest expected to be filed in the Supreme Court today.
Justin Drew is suing the State, the Puffing Billy Preservation Society and the Emerald Tourist Railway Board amid claims they knew Whitehead posed a serious risk to children but did nothing to stop him.
He is the first litigant to go public with his compensation fight, 36 years after he suffered horrific abuse at the hands of the vile child predator.
Mr Drew was routinely assaulted by Whitehead at Puffing Billy and other venues in the 1980s.
He says the abuse left him with psychiatric injury, severe alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver.
Mr Drew’s lawyer Emily Sinclair, from Le Grand Margalit Lawyers, said the abuse occurred at a formative time during his childhood.
“Its effects have had an ongoing and devastating impact on his life,” Ms Margalit said.
“The Defendants knew of Mr Whitehead’s prior offending and the other allegations of abuse. It beggars belief that nothing was done to protect my client from Mr Whitehead’s disgraceful behaviour.
“The Puffing Billy youth program should have fostered a supportive, positive environment for growth and development for its’ young volunteers. Instead, the program facilitated the abhorrent and repeated crimes of a paedophile”.
A a statement of claim filed with the Supreme Court details knowledge by senior management of offending by Whitehead dating back to 1959 for which he was jailed over the abuse of three children.
But the claim alleges a decade earlier, in 1948, complaints were made after Whitehead allegedly attempted to sexually assault another Victoria Railways employee. He resigned shortly after but was re-employed later that year.
“The conduct of the defendants in permitting Whitehead to attend Puffing Billy when it was known that he was a paedophile is deserving of condign punishment and also an expression of general deterrence,” the statement of claim says.
It claims the defendants were negligent and failed in their duty of care to Mr Drew arguing they should have stopped all interaction between Whitehead and children.
At least eight people are known to have filed claims over Whitehead’s abuse, with legal experts tipping payouts totalling millions of dollars if they are successful.
Last year a damning Ombudsman’s report found monumental failings of senior management that allowed Whitehead to prey on children for decades.
Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the number of victims abused by Whitehead would never be known.
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It followed a year-long investigation that found senior members of the Puffing Billy board “time and time again” acted to protect the reputation of the organisation rather than deal with dozens of abuse allegations.
It found the evil child molester enjoyed “unfettered access” to children, including supervising overnight work parties with young volunteers, despite his previous convictions for abuse.
Concerns were raised about Whitehead’s “untoward” behaviour in the 1970s and 80s.
He was not removed until 1991 — six years after multiple board members were allegedly made aware of an ongoing police investigation and confronted the depraved paedophile.
Whitehead was found guilty of 24 child sex offences in 2015, but died just two months into his eight-year sentence.