Former Boys' Home Employee Charged With Child Sex Offences

A Basin View man, 74, was arrested on May 8 in relation to a number of historic child sex offences, New South Wales Police said.The man, a former employee at the Daruk Training School in Berkshire Park, a suburb of Sydney, had been charged with nine offences, including “three counts of buggery, five counts of indecent assault of a male and one count of solicit male to commit indecent act,” according to police.This came around two months after a 67-year-old man was arrested in Jindalee, Brisbane, on similar charges. The arrests were part of an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving boys aged between 10 and 14 at Daruk Training School between 1965 and 1985. Relevant complaints were submitted to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The operation is known as Strike Force Eckersley.Offenders of buggery can be sentenced to 14 years in jail, and indecent assault on a male carries a five year prison term. Credit: NSW Police Force