By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A 74-year-old registered child sex offender has pleaded guilty to failing to notify authorities of his four-year-old son that he’d been regularly visiting in Vietnam.
Police pressed charges after they discovered the man on Face Time with his overseas son when they attended his single-room unit in Greater Dandenong, a court was told.
Police alleged that the man made several trips to Vietnam leading up to the birth of his son in September 2014.
On one of those trips in 2013, he had married the mother. She still lives in Vietnam with their son.
After the birth, the accused made five long visits to his wife and child – staying for up to 11 months at a time.
He had Victoria Police permission to fly to Vietnam but had not notified them of his son.
A regulations change in 2018 has since prevented him, as a registered child sex offender, from travelling overseas, the court heard.
The accused, who had been on the sex register since 2005, had believed he was only obligated to report ‘child contact’ in Victoria, not in Vietnam, the court was told.
His lawyer said the man suffered blood pressure and bowel issues.
In a hearing on 6 August, magistrate Jack Vandersteen said there was a need to manage the man’s risk of re-offending.
The court was told that previous offences involved an ex-partner’s child.
“This is the third time you’ve come before the court for failing to comply with reporting obligations,” Mr Vandersteen said.
“I can see why it was an issue on the priors.”
The man had been placed on a suspended sentence for his most recent reporting breach in 2012.
He was sentenced to a community corrections order, pending an assessment by Corrections Victoria.
