A BABYSITTER who raped a 12-year-old boy in his Bendigo home and sexually abused another has been jailed for at least three years and nine months.
David Douglas McKenzie, 48, of Devonport, Tasmania, was sentenced in the County Court in Melbourne on Thursday to three counts of committing an indecent act with a child under 16.
The offences against the boys occurred about 15 years apart and police did not fully investigate the first matter, the court heard.
McKenzie became friends with the first victim’s family in Bendigo and was allowed to babysit him in the 1990s. The boy had not reached 10 years of age.
McKenzie sat with the boy and played pornography on the television, engaging in sexually explicit conversation.
He also forced the boy to perform sexual acts on him.
The boy told his family about the incidents after they moved away and it was taken to police, but the investigation did not progress.
About 15 years later, McKenzie became friends with another woman in Bendigo and was once again allowed to care for her child, a boy not yet in his teenage years.
The boy described to police three acts of sexual assault against him, saying McKenzie had “raped him lots of times” over the course of almost two years.
The matter was taken to police and offending against both boys was investigated.
In a victim impact statement, the second boy said he suffers stress and anxiety, has “trust issues with adult males” and no longer has confidence.
McKenzie pleaded guilty to the offending against the first child, but not guilty to the second. A jury found him guilty following a trial in Bendigo last year.
The court heard McKenzie endured a violent upbringing in Tasmania and moved to Bendigo when aged 16 or 17, returning to Tasmania several years later.
He does not suffer any mental impairment, but has struggled with chronic alcoholism. McKenzie won a “good neighbour” award in the set of units where he was living.
Judge Susan Cohen said the crimes had a lasting impact on both the boys and their families.
“I have no doubt that the lady I am calling his mother felt deeply shocked and betrayed when discovering what you had done to the boy that was under your care, and that you had done this in circumstances that she trusted you by leaving him with you,” she said.
“You abused their trust to obtain opportunities to be alone with this boy to further your own sexual pleasure.”
McKenzie was jailed for six years with a non-parole period of three years and nine months. He has already served 184 days in custody.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.