By JESSE GRAHAM
FORMER Puffing Billy volunteer Robert Whitehead will face court in April to answer child sexual abuse charges.
Mr Whitehead, 83, faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday 6 February and had his case adjourned until 17 April.
A former railway historian and Puffing Billy Railway volunteer, Mr Whitehead has been charged with 20 counts of indecent assault and one count of false imprisonment, dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.
Mr Whitehead was arrested on 12 January, and was charged with an additional 10 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual penetration of a minor aged 10 to 16 on 28 January. He will be out on bail until the April hearing.
Puffing Billy CEO John Robinson told the Mail earlier in the year that the organisation knew nothing of the charges against Mr Whithead, and had not had contact with him for over 25 years.
