A man will spend at least seven months in jail for the sexual abuse of a boy in Shepparton about three decades ago.
Barry James Walden, 61, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to sexual penetration of a child aged under 16 years, and committing an indecent act with a child aged under 16.
Walden was aged between 31 and 35 when he assaulted his victim, a young boy who was then aged under 10, between 1993 and 1997.
The court was told Walden performed sexual acts with the boy on two different occasions — once in a house and another time in a car.
The victim did not tell anyone what happened at the time, but told police about the sexual assaults in July 2020.
In sentencing Walden, Judge Fiona Todd said what he had done was a “grave and wretched thing to do to a child”.
“He was a child … too small to know what you were doing, why, and to object,” she said.
Judge Todd said the impact of the offending was “devastating” on Walden’s victim.
“What you did caused him great suffering and he still suffers into adulthood,” she said.
Judge Todd noted that while Walden was convicted and jailed for similar offences in 2005, this matter before the court pre-dated those offences.
She took into account a psychologist’s testimony that Walden had major depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
She also noted testimony that Walden had himself been abused as a child, but said there was not a direct causal link between him being a victim and his own offending.
Having had to complete a sex offenders program as part of his last sentence, Judge Todd said Walden’s prospects of rehabilitation were good.
She also took into account totality, and the fact that a long period of time had passed since his last sentence and he had not reoffended – although there were three breaches of his sex offenders registration obligations.
Walden’s barrister argued for a wholly suspended sentence, but Judge Todd said she would only partially suspend it.
Walden was sentenced to a total of 22 months in prison, with 15 months of this suspended for two-and-a-half years.
This means Walden will have to serve seven months of the jail term before he is released.
Then he has to remain offence-free for two-and-a-half years or he will go back to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Registration Act list for life.