Victims unite to encourage others

Victims of a Katanning man who has been labelled Australia’s worst serial paedophile have banded together to encourage other victims to come forward.

Dennis John McKenna pleaded guilty to 10 charges in the Perth District Court last Thursday relating to child sex offences after he originally intended to fight the allegations.

The court heard McKenna, a warden at St Andrews Hostel between 1975 and 1990, sexually abused six boys who stayed at the hostel to attend Katanning Senior High School.

Albany’s Darryl Stephens, who was abused by McKenna in 1976-77, said he and five other victims had joined together to encourage any other victims to come forward.

“I’m quite sure that now this is out in the open there will be a lot more come out, I’m very positive of that,” he said.

“There are just so many stories.”

The men have retained the services of Perth lawyer John Hammond, who is seeking an ex-gratia payment from the State Government on their behalf.

Mr Hammond said McKenna was arguably the worst serial paedophile in Australian history.

Mr Stephens said McKenna had been a respected member of the community who had won the Katanning Citizen of the Year award three times in a row, which made it difficult for victims to come forward at first.

He said he hoped McKenna’s sentence, set for October 18, would bring a sense of closure to the victims.

It would be McKenna’s second conviction for child sex offences, having already been sentenced to six years and nine months prison in 1991 for incidents at the hostel.

A complainant in that case, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said all of McKenna’s victims believed they were the only ones.

“We had to bring him down after getting Citizen of the Year and all that sort of thing, it was very hard,” the man said.

The man said he knew victims who had suffered for years as a result of the abuse.

“A lot of the blokes suffer with alcoholism, depression, self harm, which all goes along with dealing with that actual act.”

He said victims getting together was an important part of the healing process.

Mr Stephens said he encouraged any other victims to contact him on 0418 946 800.

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