Former Salvation Army worker Robert Burnett found guilty of abusing children, by Shannon Deery, Herald Sun (October 25, 2016)

Former Salvation Army worker Robert Burnett found guilty of abusing children

A FORMER Salvation Army worker who has faced off against 12 juries this year can finally be exposed as a deviant sexual predator who tortured small children.

Remorseless rapist Robert Burnett continues to defiantly maintain his innocence, despite being found guilty of abusing a string of kids in a reign of terror spanning three decades.

Now the 77-year-old is behind bars and facing the prospect of a 20-year jail term that could see him never released from prison.

In that time he abused kids at the Salvation Army’s notorious Bayswater Boys’ Home, near his home in Gippsland, and while taking kids on holidays.

He was violent to some of his victims, abused some in front of other children, and molested others as they slept.

Burnett was charged in 2013 and faced 12 separate County Court trials this year, taking the stand on two occasions to try and convince juries of his innocence.

He was ultimately convicted of a string of buggery and child sexual penetration offences.

He was acquitted of some charges, while juries were unable to decide on other counts.

Last year the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse probed the experiences of children who lived in Salvation Army institutions between 1940 and 1990.

It included the notorious Bayswater Boys’ Home, where Burnett worked, which operated from 1897 to 1986 and housed hundreds of boys who had been placed in legal custody.

Former residents reported routine bashings, cruel violence and widespread sexual abuse.

At the hearings the Victorian Department of Human Services admitted failing in its duty of care to children placed in the Salvation Army-run homes.

“I want it to be clear that the department had a clear responsibility for oversight of those homes and that it clearly did not do enough,” performance, regulation and reporting director Alan Hall said.

“We should have visited more. We should have been there much more for the times that you wanted someone to talk to outside of the homes.”