By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
Saturday, 25 July
“YOUR past has caught up with you,” Judge Michael Tinney told former Puffing Billy volunteer Robert Kingsley Whitehead at the Victorian County Court on Friday 24 July.
“Six victims came into your domain with a common interest in railways,” Judge Tinney said.
“These boys would have looked up to you and been impressed. You used this interest to sexually abuse children.”
These were the words Judge Tinney spoke as he sentenced Whitehead, to more than eight years prison for 24 charges of sexual abuse against six boys.
“You were trusted with the children,” Judge Tinney said, while also describing Whitehead’s actions as “largely not opportunistic with clear pre-planning”.
There were no submissions in relation to Whitehead showing any genuine remorse and Judge Tinney said he “was not surprised” by this.
Judge Tinney noted there had been a significant breach of trust that factored into the length of the prison sentence.
Counsel for Whitehead did not dispute or take issue with the victim impact statements supplied to the court.
Judge Tinney described the details in the victim impact statements as “sobering listening and reading” that included sentiments towards Whitehead’s actions such as “ruining young boy’s hobbies,” and “impossible to forget”.
Whitehead’s victims described in their impact statements still having nightmares and flashbacks of the abuse, made to feel like a liar when they were not believed, impacting every aspect of their lives and feeling completely ashamed of what had happened.
When taking mitigating factors, such as Whitehead’s age and poor state of health, into consideration for the length of the prison sentence, Judge Tinney said: “It is not unusual for older men to be imprisoned for their past crimes.”
“You may very well die in prison,” Judge Tinney said to the now 84-year-old Whitehead.
“Age does not mitigate a prison term even when there is little possibility of life afterwards.”
The court heard that had Whitehead not pleaded guilty and instead been found guilty by trial, Judge Tinney would have given a prison sentence of 13 years and six months with a non-parole period of nine years.
“But for your guilty plea, I would give a much more significant prison term,” he said.
After the sentencing, Whitehead’s victims asked any more possible victims to come forward as one of them expressed they did not believe the abuse stopped after 1985.
Another expressed his happiness to know Whitehead would be spending time in prison saying “it’s a great result to see Whitehead get what he deserves”.
Others were more scathing in their reaction saying “I hope he dies in jail” and “he’s an evil torturer” as well as “jail is too good for him”.
Judge Tinney addressed Whitehead during sentencing saying: “You have left a trail of human wreckage in your wake”.
Friday, 24 July
ROBERT Whitehead has been sentenced to eight years and eight months jail over the sexual abuse of six young boys during the 1970s and 1980s.
Mr Whitehead will serve a non-parole period of four years and six months.
He pleaded guilty to 24 charges in relation to the six victims, some of whom were as young as 13 when they were abused.
More as it comes.
Tuesday, 21 July
FORMER Puffing Billy volunteer Robert Whitehead is due to be sentenced in the Melbourne County Court this Friday after last week pleading guilty to 24 charges relating to sexual abuse of minors.
The charges included repeated sexual abuse of a then 13-year-old Puffing Billy volunteer.
Since Mr Whitehead’s arrest on 12 January this year, more victims have come forward, alleging the abuse took place over a 40-year period, between 1966 and 1984.
Subsequently, Mr Whitehead has been charged with another child sex offence, bringing his total alleged victims to six, with 24 separate charges.
It wasn’t until 1990, after 20 years of volunteer work, that Mr Whitehead was discharged as a volunteer from Puffing Billy over allegations of abuse.
The court heard on Wednesday 15 July, that police failed to question Whitehead in 1985 after a young Puffing Billy volunteer reported his sexual abuse.
The court also heard police have records of Whitehead being questioned but was not charged at that time due to lack of evidence.
Records of Mr Whitehead’s first sexual abuse charges in 1959 were lost until last year, greatly weakening any investigations into subsequent allegations.
It was revealed in court that Anthony John Hutchins, another Puffing Billy volunteer, was questioned over abuse allegations at the same time as Whitehead.
While Mr Whitehead denied the charges, Hutchins admitted to his crimes and was jailed after being convicted of 66 child sex assault charges in 1986.
Chief executive officer of Puffing Billy Railway John Robinson said there were no records of anyone making allegations about the volunteers at the time.
“There has never ever been an allegation in relation to a specific individual made to the railway,” he said.
When asked about the mother of one of Mr Whitehead’s victims supposedly warning management at Puffing Billy about Mr
Whitehead, Mr Robinson said there were no records of that happening.
“It’s been reported in the press that one person allegedly rang railway around the time and made allegations, but we have no record of those conversations,” he said.
“I’m not denying those conversations happened, but there is no record of them, and we are talking about decades ago.”
Mr Robinson has been CEO of Puffing Billy since November 2012, and has worked mostly as a volunteer around the railway for about 50 years, but never really knew Mr Whitehead.
“I didn’t work alongside him, but I was on the committee he was on for a time but other than that our paths didn’t cross,” he said.
Mr Robinson has told the Mail previously that all Puffing Billy staff and volunteers had been subject to police checks since 2005, and working with children checks since 2007, but there was no official checks in place when Mr Whitehead first started volunteering with Puffing Billy.
“There would have been some screening, but nothing official in those days,” he said.
“There were no police checks and no external process. It would appear no-one knew of his previous history, and we weren’t the only organisation that suffered as a result of this.”
Mr Robinson also told the Mail that everyone at Puffing Billy has been appalled by the charges against Mr Whitehead.
“The whole Puffing Billy community is horrified by the publicity we are getting as a result of this,” he said.
“It’s most unfair and most unfortunate.
“We have 900 plus volunteers that work their hearts out for the railway and everyone is horrified.”
Mr Whitehead will be sentenced in the Melbourne County Court this Friday.
