Ex-Salvation Army worker Robert Burnett was said to be an ‘affectionate, benevolent father figure’ for the children in his care. But there was another, sinister side to the man that led him to remorselessly sexually prey on the most vulnerable of them for more than 20 years as a carer in a Victorian boys’ home. Now, the 77-year-old is likely to die behind bars after he was found guilty of abusing seven boys – aged about seven to 13 – at his home or on camping trips in Victoria from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, sometimes while they slept.
