Peter Vincent White: Pedophile who sexually abused Neighbors star Madeleine West and six other children after luring them to a house of horrors with lollipops and toys is named and jailed
A pedophile who sexually abused Neighbors star Madeleine West and six other children after luring them with lollipops and toys has been jailed.
Peter Vincent White, 73, pleaded guilty to 33 charges of child sexual abuse against seven children, one of whom was West, then called Melanie Ann Weston.
White, whose crimes include sexual penetration of a child under the age of 10 and gross indecency with a child, lured children in the Victorian town of Woodend, northwest of Melbourne in the Macedon Ranges.
He used his Woodend home – which he shared with his wife and children – as a central meeting place for local children, but for seven children he sexually abused it became a house of horrors.
He lured the children, aged between four and fourteen, with games and lollipops when he targeted them between 1977 and 1988.
White was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the Victorian County Court on Wednesday. He was stared at in court by a host of family and friends of the victims as Judge Amanda Chambers read out the harrowing and lengthy details of his offending.
Madeleine West's abuser has been jailed aged 73 for sexually abusing seven young children in the Victorian town of Woodend.
The Neighbors star, then known as Melanie Ann Weston (above), was lured by lollipops and toys along with her local children and then sexually assaulted by Peter White at his family home
One girl was assaulted during a game of hide and seek when White told them to hide in a bed together.
White, a professional wood-burning stove installer, abused the children in bizarre and cruel ways, encouraging them to play and then perform degrading sex acts.
He forced children to use toys and balloons on his penis, and even forced two little girls to insert 'sticks' into his penis.
Ms West, who also starred in Underbelly and House Husbands, posted a lengthy message on Instagram after the sentencing.
'Today's ruling is the best Christmas present we could wish for. It took forty years to be delivered, but now it's here,” she wrote.
“It's a pittance compared to the life sentence served by victims of childhood sexual abuse, but today's ruling shows that victim survivors are not alone, that it was never our fault, that we are not broken and that justice is possible!
'I hope my story will encourage other victims to come forward.
“We are a country obsessed with crime and its prevention, and child sexual abuse is itself the ONLY crime that can NEVER be justified. A crime with one of the highest numbers of victims, the highest recidivism rates and yet the lowest conviction rates. This is a crime against CHILDREN. Of the worst possible kind.
“By continuing to pretend it isn't happening, we are deliberately putting our children in danger, just as we have remained in danger like so many generations before us. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.
'It's happening here. It's happening now. It's time to stop. Tomorrow looks bright.”
Peter Vincent White, 73, has pleaded guilty to 33 charges of child sexual abuse against seven children, one of whom was West, then called Melanie Ann Weston
In sentencing him to a minimum non-parole period of nine years, Judge Chambers told White addressed the final decades of his life, noting that her sentence carried a real prospect of him dying in prison.
Two of White's victims had confronted him in 2022 after reporting the incident to police.
In both cases, recorded by the women, he claimed he had no memory of his crimes.
“I don't remember doing anything like that… if I did, I don't remember it,” he told one woman.
He said he was sorry if he did that, but that it had been “erased from my mind.”
White made similar comments to another woman, denying that he targeted her and saying it was just something that happened at the time.
The trespass at his family home often happened at night, when his children were sleeping and when his wife, who was deaf, was unlikely to be disturbed.
He was between 26 and 38 years old.
One of the children disclosed the offense in his mid-teens, prompting his father to confront White, who vowed never to harm anyone again.
Judge Chamber said the victim later described the crime to his wife, who encouraged him to report it to police after learning of other victims through media reports.
A young girl told the crime to a family friend, who told her mother, but Judge Chambers said the girl's mother did not believe her.
In the mid-1990s, a boy disclosed the abuse to his father, but no action was taken.
Police first spoke to White about abuse allegations in 2019 and he was first charged in November 2022.
Judge Chambers said there was no doubt that his offending had a profound and devastating impact on the lives of each of his victims.
She found his plea was indicative of remorse, but there was little other evidence that he was genuinely remorseful for his offense or its impact.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redressal Support Service 1800 211 028