Former Victorian rail official and Puffing Billy volunteer to be sentenced over child sex offences

A former volunteer with the Puffing Billy heritage train and Victorian Railways employee will be sentenced as one of the state's longest-offending pedophiles after pleading guilty to more than 20 charges today.

Robert Kingsley Whitehead, 84, pleaded guilty in the County Court to 20 charges of indecent assault, two charges of sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, and one count of false imprisonment.

Prosecution lawyers detailed how Whitehead "initiated" his victims into the railways before abusing them, The Age has reported.

Whitehead admitted to sexually abusing six boys and adolescents between the 1960s and 1980s while working as a government railway officer and volunteer at historical train societies.

County Court Judge Michael Tinney heard how in one case dating back to 1975, Whitehead abused a 13-year-old boy at a former railway station near Bendigo, while in the mid-80s he repeatedly sexually abused a 13-year-old Puffing Billy volunteer.

Whitehead warned victims they would be in trouble with police if they told anyone what had happened.

Whitehead was a volunteer with the Puffing Billy railway at Upwey in the Dandenong Ranges for 20 years before he was dismissed in 1990 over abuse allegations.

The Age reports that Whitehead was first convicted of a child sexual abuse offence and false imprisonment in 1959 when he was aged just 28.

He spent seven months at Pentridge Prison before being released on parole, with judge Trevor Rapke requesting he never be allowed near young boys.

Despite the warning, Whitehead returned to work as a Victorian government railway official, which gave him regular contact with children.

The Age also reports that records of the 1959 conviction were missing until last year, which affected the strength of an investigation in the mid-1980s which resulted in no charges being laid.

His case is expected to be referred to the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, with transport officials failing to act despite reportedly being warned of the offending by victims and their families.

Whitehead will be sentenced at a later date.