DONALD Victor Greenaway is the man with two faces – a Hunter accountant, small business owner and prominent church man, who is also a serial child sex offender with a criminal history stretching back to 1950.
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He was refused bail last week after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting 19 boys from as early as the 1960s, including several while working as a volunteer at Wallsend’s Woodlands children’s home.
Greenaway, 84, raped boys as young as five.
He used scripture, Sunday school lessons and sports groups to gain access to boys for decades from the 1960s, despite his first child sex conviction in a Newcastle court in 1970, and subsequent convictions in 1999 that put him in jail for five years.
When one victim confronted him about his crimes, Greenaway sent him a letter through his lawyer threatening to have the victim charged with blackmail.
Greenaway showed very young children disturbing pornographic images and films, including films of adults having sex with animals. He raped boys after luring them to his homes at Merewether and North Belmont where offences occurred while boys swam in his pool.
In Newcastle District Court on April 28 he pleaded guilty to 66 child sex charges including 35 sexual assault offences, buggery, indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, soliciting boys to commit acts of indecency and three counts of possessing child abuse material.
In 1999 Greenaway was jailed for five years for raping a boy between the ages of 5 and 11 at Merewether, North Belmont, Craven and Gloucester in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Greenaway was in his late 40s and early 50s.
During that time Greenaway ran scripture and Sunday school classes for the Baptist church in the Hunter region. He told the boy the offences were “our secret”, and the boy’s parents would be angry if he spoke about it.
The United Protestant Association, which ran Woodlands Boys Home from 1944 to 1981, issued an unreserved apology in 2013 to boys who were sexually abused while in its care.
UPA chief executive Steven Walkerden repeated the apology on Monday after Greenaway’s guilty pleas, and offered support and redress for victims.
“Greenaway’s parents were supporters of the home for some time and he was frequently around the place as a volunteer,” Mr Walkerden said.
“We are very pleased to hear of the guilty pleas and we re-state our apology for the shameful abuse that occurred.”
Greenaway did not apply for bail. The matter will return to court in July for an assessment of his health. He will be sentenced in August.
