Elderly Victorian railways paedophile Robert Kingsley Whitehead may die in prison after he was sentenced to eight years and eight months' jail today for sexually abusing six train-loving boys between the 1960s and 1980s.
County Court Judge Michael Tinney told Whitehead, 84, that "your past has now caught up with you" and imposed a non-parole period of four-and-a-half-years.
"You may very well die in prison. Of course I hope that you do not," he said.
Judge Tinney told Whitehead that had he not pleaded guilty to 24 charges ranging from sexual penetration, indecent assault and false imprisonment he would have been jailed for more than 13 years if he was found guilty at trial.
Whitehead was a former senior Victorian railways official who rose to become controller of Melbourne's Spencer Street station. He had influential roles in the Puffing Billy tourist service in the Dandenongs and Australian Railway Historical Society at North Williamstown, venues where he met some victims.
Judge Tinney told Whitehead that he used his position in the railways to impress the boys only to ruin their boyhood innocence, adding that his offending caused life-long adverse impacts on their health and relationships.
"What you did to those boys was seriously criminal. It was wrong. It was unforgivable," he said.
"You have left in your wake a trail of human wreckage."
The judge said it was "tragic" that Whitehead's abuse of the six victims occurred after he had already served a prison sentence in 1959 for abducting and molesting a boy scout in his care.
The offence caused Whitehead to lose his Victorian railways job. But Fairfax Media revealed on Thursday that Whitehead was re-employed in 1960 after Bolte government minister Sir Murray Porter lobbied the state's railway commissioners on his behalf.
Sir Murray was the member for Sandringham, the electorate where Whitehead's parents lived.
Judge Tinney said he was dismayed by "the fact that you were re-employed by the railways in the 1960s" and welcomed into rail historical societies.
Judge Tinney said he took into account Whitehead's age, ill health and early guilty plea in determining his sentence. However, he said there was little evidence other than an early guilty plea to indicate remorse and described Whitehead's interviews with police last year as "far from co-operative".
The court heard that Victoria Police had confirmed Whitehead was arrested and interviewed in 1985 in relation to abuse complaints from a boy involved with Puffing Billy.
However, no charges were laid against Whitehead. Whitehead's recent guilty pleas include the accusations made by the boy back in 1985.
Another Puffing Billy volunteer questioned by police at the same as Whitehead in the mid-1980s, Anthony John Hutchins, pleaded guilty to 66 charges and was jailed.
Judge Tinney also took issue with Fairfax Media's publication of a report last weekend which identified one of Whitehead's victims and partially identified another. Both victims consented to being identified in the manner which they were in the report and were keen to have their stories told.
The barrister for the Director of Public Prosecutions told Judge Tinney both victims were happy with Fairfax Media's report and the manner in which they had been identified.
However, Judge Tinney said he would refer The Age and reporter Richard Baker to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Victorian Attorney-General for breaches of the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act.
