James, the suspected sixth victim of paedophile Vivian Deboo, took his own life in 1997 after hearing Deboo would be released from jail
James was a bubbly and carefree young man — until he worked at the cafe of convicted paedophile Vivian Deboo. In 1997, when the predator was set to be released back into the Victor Harbor community, he took his own life. He was 21. This is his story.
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A suspected sixth victim of convicted paedophile Vivian Deboo took his own life in 1997 after hearing the offender was about to be released from jail.
James was aged just 21. He and brother Chris worked at Deboo’s cafe in Victor Harbor and were invited by him to organise the catering at Catholic silent retreats held at Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills, during the 1990s.
In an exclusive interview with The Advertiser, Chris has named his brother as someone he suspects was a tragic victim of Deboo’s heinous acts.
James’s mother and former girlfriend have also spoken publicly for the first time of their anguish. The boys’ mother has supported Chris in helping him expose the suspected offences against her deceased son.
She said police wanted to speak to James — whose surname The Advertiser has chosen to withhold — in the mid-1990s after an attempt by one or more people to burn down Deboo’s cafe, The Kitchen Table.
“James refused to speak to police,” his mother said.
Chris, who was still working at the cafe at the time of the police investigation, said the staff were called to a meeting by Deboo’s wife, Margaret, who told them it was a random attack.
In April 1996, Deboo was jailed for six years with a non-parole period of two years for indecently assaulting and having unlawful sexual intercourse with three other teenage boys.
Deboo employed the three victims, aged between 14 and 16, at his restaurant and catering business, The Kitchen Table, when he molested them between August 1990 and March 1991.
This month he was jailed again for offences against two brothers, identified only as A and B.
A petition was circulated in Victor Harbor in the 1990s after Deboo was first jailed, stating he had applied for release, James’s mother said.
“James could not believe Deboo was going to be released into the Victor Harbor community,” she said. She was beside herself with worry for her son.
“I used to sit by his bedroom door every night because I was so scared he would do something to himself. I believe James died because he could not cope with confronting Deboo in the community,” she said.
At the time of his death, some people believed James had died as a reaction to his father’s sudden death in a car crash three years previously, but the timing of his death related to Deboo being released into the community.
“It is scary to think how many victims there were in all the years Deboo catered at campsites around South Australia,” she said.
“How many others have been abused by Deboo that to this day have not yet come forward?”
James’s girlfriend Karen said he went to see her days before he died but she did not understand at the time what he was trying to tell her.
It was only after James died that she realised the meaning of what he told her.
“I knew James before he worked at the cafe. I remember James had a really good sense of humour. He was really bubbly and friendly,” she said.
“I remember seeing a change in him after he worked at the cafe. He just didn’t seem as carefree.
“He did say he didn’t know if he would be around. I thought he meant he was leaving town − it wasn’t until after he died that I realised what he was saying.”
Deboo groomed his victims at the cafe by giving them free treats such as soft drinks, lollies and ice-creams.
Chris has told The Advertiser that Deboo had also groomed him and attempted to assault him at a Catholic retreat in the Adelaide Hills where Deboo took him to work as a kitchen hand.
The location was the same site where the previous Deboo victim known as A had been taken and assaulted in 1990.
Deboo was jailed this month for multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency against A and his brother, identified only as B, in the 1990s. The brothers came forward about their abuse in 2015.
Deboo was jailed for six years, seven months and six days and deemed a serious repeat offender. He will be eligible to seek parole in March 2024.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Simon Stretton said Deboo’s crimes showed “distinct elements of grooming”.
Chris said the Catholic retreat in the Hills was a perfect place for Deboo to prey on children.
“It was a carefully executed plan,” he said.
On the day Deboo drove with Chris to Aldgate, Deboo stopped for petrol and bought an adult pornographic magazine.
“He threw it on my lap and said, ‘here’s some reading’,” Chris said.
“I did not read it. I put it in the van console.
“The second afternoon before meal service I was in having a shower in my room and came out in a towel. Deboo was in my room sitting in an armchair.
“I asked him what he was doing. He said, ‘I’m watching you get dressed’,” Chris said.
“I said, ‘No you’re f***ing not’. He got up and walked out.”
James and another of Deboo’s victims
James and a boy identified as A in a criminal case against convicted paedophile Vivian Deboo were football buddies.
The two boys fought side-by-side on the football field, surfed and rode skateboards together as carefree teenagers in the coastal town of Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
When A started working at Deboo’s now-infamous cafe The Kitchen Table, James warned him not to go away with Deboo to cater for camps.
A did not understand James’ message — until he was sexually assaulted by Deboo while he was working as a kitchen hand for a silent religious retreat in the Adelaide Hills in 1990.
Almost 30 years later, as A grappled with having his abuser prosecuted and jailed, it was the silent voice of James that spurred him on, giving him courage to keep fighting when his mind and body felt like they could not step forwards.
“James gave me courage to keep fighting. When I felt like I could not go on, I really did genuinely think, ‘James doesn’t have that choice and I have to keep going for him’,” A said.
“James helped me get through it.”
“James had a conversation with me on the football oval at training and he told me, with a look in his eye which I now realise was absolute desperation. He said ‘don’t go on the camps. Whatever you do, don’t go on the camps’. He knew I has just got a job at the Kitchen Table.”
“[James] tried really hard to stop me going on the camp. When I went on the camp and [the abuse] happened I instantly flashed back to that moment when James had told me that,” A said.
“I believe [James] had had this happen to him too and that he tried to stop me coming to this place. He tried to protect me.”
“I needed to do my absolute best as a way of thanking James for his courage in trying his best to stop me being at that horrible place,” A said.
Originally published as James, the suspected sixth victim of paedophile Vivian Deboo, took his own life in 1997 after hearing Deboo would be released from jail
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