When one of serial paedophile Allan Keith Huggins’ victims first reported the abuse, police did not believe him.
The then-teenager instead received a beating from his father for potentially ruining someone’s career.
Years later that victim, Garry Faint, described the experience as a “nightmare”, saying his parents died without knowing the truth about Huggins.
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“They believed him over me,” Faint said.
Huggins today learned he would likely die in prison for sexually abusing multiple boys during the 1970s and ’80s.
The abusive former counsellor received a minimum 20-year jail term, backdated to 2020, making him first eligible for release in 2040, when he would be 92 years old.
He was found guilty in August on 36 counts of molesting 10 young male patients in Armidale, in northern NSW, between 1977 and 1986.
As the emotionless 77-year-old was led from the Sydney courtroom, his many victims and their supporters let out cheers and jabs of abuse.
“Hope you rot now you bastard,” one said.
Another victim of Huggins’ abuse, Phil Wright, said the outcome was better than many had expected and marked the end of a long journey after the crimes were first reported to police more than four decades ago.
“It feels like an amazing vindication,” he said.
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Both Wright and Faint reported the abuse to adults, including members of the Catholic church, but were either not believed or ignored, Judge Penelope Hock noted during sentencing.
Faint went to police after fleeing an assault by Huggins, but was instead driven home by the officers to be dealt with by his parents.
The officers had a brief conversation with his father, who later gave him “the biggest hiding of (his) life”, leaving him with injuries including broken ribs.
Before the beating, the court was told his father said: “You f—— little bastard, you’re going to wreck someone’s career.”
“The police did not take any action,” Judge Hock said.
“This was no doubt in part because of the offender’s respected position in the community.”
The victims of Huggins’ NSW crimes were forced to wait more than a decade for him to finish serving a prison sentence in Western Australia, where he was convicted in 2015 of similar crimes and spent nine years behind bars.
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Between 1977 and 1988, Huggins worked in NSW as counsellor of teenage and pre-teen boys, many of whom were vulnerable.
“Unbeknownst to those who employed him, he was a pedophile who went on to assault boys he was engaged to assist,” Judge Hock said.
Huggins used hypnosis and relaxation techniques to place his victims in vulnerable states before removing their clothes and engaging in extreme acts of sexual abuse.
During the trial, Wright described being unable to move or stop the abuse from happening
The court was told at the start of today’s District Court sentencing that a letter was delivered to the judge’s chambers from Huggins, which was handed back to his solicitor unopened after Judge Hock declared the move “completely inappropriate”.
The divorced father-of-three adult women did not react as the sentence was delivered, having spent much of the trial silently taking notes with his gaze stiffly lowered.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732 ) National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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