One-off molester can work with kids

A sex offender who molested a 14-year-old boy has been granted a working with children check after arguing his sex attack was a side effect of diet pills.

A sex offender who molested a 14-year-old boy has been granted a working with children check.

A sex offender who molested a 14-year-old boy has been granted a working with children check after arguing his sex attack was a side effect of diet pills.

The 53-year-old man worked for years as a qualified nurse and now wants to work as a carer for disabled children and adults.

His request for a working with children check was initially rejected but successfully appealed at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The tribunal ruled in his favour after hearing his sexual assault of a teenager in 1996 was “an unforeseen side-effect to diet medication which he took immediately before the offending”.

The man, who was not named in tribunal documents, was 30 at the time of the offence against a 14-year-old boy in a toilet block.

The man, who pleaded guilty in the County Court to sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, has been granted a working with children check.

The teen victim immediately went to the police, and the man pleaded guilty in the County Court to sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16.

He was convicted but spared jail time, with his nine-month prison sentence wholly suspended.

At the time the man was taking a weight-loss medication called Duromine, which is prescribed for obese patients.

In his appeal for a working with children check, he argued the adverse side effect of the pills should be viewed as a significant mitigating factor in his sexual offending.

He said the use of medication, combined with his confused sexual identity and the breakdown of a long-term relationship, triggered his opportunistic offence.

As part of his application, he was assessed by a psychiatrist who said he had matured in the years since the offence and was a low risk of reoffending.

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However the psychiatrist noted he was “not entirely risk-free”.

Tribunal deputy president Ian Proctor ultimately granted him a working with children check, concluding he “would not pose an unjustifiable risk to the safety of children”.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesman said all working with children check applicants were “subject to rigorous screening processes to ensure that they do not pose an unjustifiable risk to children”.

The spokesman said the tribunal’s decision could be appealed only on questions of law.

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