Charlie Contarino: Child abuser jailed for historic offences
A child abuser who worked at Bathurst Island and the Kimberley has been outed. Read for details.
An artist has been jailed for child sexual abuse - more than 20 years after the offending.
Charlie Contarino, now 67, was living in regional NT at the time he started abusing a young girl.
On one instance, the victim was in Contarino’s car when he pulled over by the roadside and raped her.
Over the course of several years Contarino abused the child until she stood up to him and the exploitation came to an end.
For the next 24 years, Contarino continued to live and work amongst the NT community.
Consequences catch up
NT Police started investigating Contarino in 2022 after receiving a formal complaint by the victim.
He was eventually arrested and charged, but granted bail.
Contarino was taken back into custody in September 2025 after pleading guilty to four counts of indecently dealing with a child under 16 years of age.
He also pleaded guilty to a single count of having sexual intercourse with a child under 16 years of age and an act of gross indecency.
On November 19, Contarino learned his fate.
“The offending involved highly offensive behaviour,” Justice Meredith Huntingford said.
“It was also predatory.”
A victim impact statement received by the court spoke to the “severe and lifelong” consequences Contarino had inflicted upon his victim.
“It went on over a prolonged period of time,” Justice Huntingford said.
“You persistently offended, continuing your behaviour even though the victim clearly expressed her distress and asked you to stop.”
She described his early plea as having “high utilitarian value” and afforded him a 25 per cent discount on his sentence.
Further, she noted a doctor’s report which found the artist to “not have a persisting sexual interest in children” and of being at low risk of reoffending.
He was sentenced to six years imprisonment backdated to September 2025.
A non-parole period of two years and six months was imposed.
Broken background, career journeyman
Before Contarino’s fate was sealed, the courtroom recapped his life before and after the offending.
Born in Sicily, Contarino’s family moved to Perth when he was an infant.
The court heard his late father - a Second World War veteran - was a “harsh disciplinarian who “savagely” beat his son.
Contarino’s childhood was riddled with homelessness, abuse and instability.
Court documents also referred to abusive acts inflicted on him.
“You describe these encounters as very degrading,” Justice Huntingford said.
“For a long time, you blamed yourself for permitting them to happen.”
Despite his turbulent adolescence, Contarino forged a respectable career which included farm work, working in a gold mine as a fitter, and a cook.
Perhaps his most notable employment came with the East Kimberley CDEP where he worked as a field officer before gaining promotion to project supervisor and eventually community development officer.
For his contribution, East Kimberley CDEP provided a glowing reference for Contarino, hailing him as a man who did the job of two people.
His last professional gig was on Bathurst Island where he was tasked with training people as part of the ‘work-for-dole’ initiative.
For his talent in art – namely as a painter and woodworker – Contarino was engaged on many occasions to teach artistic skills to others, both in a paid and volunteer capacity.
“You appear to have been a productive member of the community in the intervening period from a work perspective,” Justice Huntingford said.
After retiring in January 2025, Contarino turned to the aged pension to live off.
He enters old age with a litany of medical conditions – both physical and mental.
Heart problems, arthritis and hearing issues have all been cited as a lingering problem for the artists, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Such are his conditions that the Darwin Correctional Centre is housing him in a zone which specifically caters to prisoners with special needs or disabilities.
More Coverage
Originally published as Charlie Contarino: Child abuser jailed for historic offences
