Self-confessed paedophile Maurice Van Ryn has offered an apology to his victims as their statements were read in court.
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On Thursday, the 59-year-old was brought to the Downing Centre District Court from Silverwater jail for a hearing to determine how he should be punished.
The grandfather of one victim and the mother of another read short, moving statements from the children to Judge Clive Jeffreys and a courtroom packed with the victim's relatives, support persons and journalists.
"I'm not as happy as I used to be - thoughts about what happened sometimes came up," the grandfather read from his grandaughter's statement as a number of relatives in the courtroom cried.
"I'm not playing with girls like I used to. I get more angry than before."
After a short adjournment, Van Ryn went into the witness box and told the court he had a paraphylic disorder that meant he had been attracted to children for most of his life.
"Since my early teens," the former Bega Cheese CEO said of his disorder, speaking in a loud clear voice.
"I thought about it every day."
He described his acts as "a few minutes of stupidity", apologising to the victims and their families and his own family.
The 59-year-old said he was now taking medication to supress his testosterone levels which had made his "preoccuptation with children" go away.
"That's the real tragedy of this - with many other issues in society like smoking and alcohol there's an understanding that prevention measures are better than dealing with the mess after the fact, but I have never seen an advertisment on television about this kind of treatment [for paedophilia].
"I've been pretty upset that there were things I could have done."
The court heard that Van Ryn had a prior conviction for obscene exposure from 1981, in which he exposed his penis in his car, with the 59-year-old telling the court a "paper boy" had seen it and "become upset".
He was found guilty of the offence but no conviction was recorded.
Since being taken into custody late last year, the 59-year-old had been subjected to a stream of verbal abuse from his fellow inmates.
"The last month has been absolute hell," he said.
"I've been in solitary confinement which might mean that I'm physically safe, but I've been subjected to 24-hour abuse.
"The prisoners know why you're there. It's just about pushed me over the edge."
MORE TO COME.