A MAN who sparked a police hunt when he lured two children from a North Perth childcare centre and sexually assaulted them has had two years added to his prison term for separately abusing a boy.
Vincenzo Mule, 54, was found guilty by a jury of two counts of indecent dealing with a child and two counts of sexual penetration of a child, committed against a six-year-old boy he knew.
He was acquitted of a further three charges of indecently dealing with the boy.
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READ NOWMule was sentenced in the WA District Court on Monday and has now been sentenced to a total of 16-and-a-half years in prison for the sex crimes and a separate arson offence.
Judge Kathleen Glancy said Mule’s offending against the boy was an abuse of trust.
“On occasions you were controlling and aggressive towards that little boy,” she said.
While there was no victim impact statement, the abuse had a destructive impact on the extremely vulnerable boy, Judge Glancy said.
Mule was previously convicted of enticing a four-year-old girl and five-year-old boy to follow him to a shed at his home in April 2016.
He offered the children icy poles before sexually abusing them, then abandoned the pair in Hyde Park.
For those offences, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He is also serving four-and-a-half years for a separate arson incident.
Judge Glancy reduced the prison term she would have given him for abusing the boy after taking into consideration those existing sentences, ensuring it was not a crushing sentence.
Defence counsel Mark Gunning had told the court Mule had never been incarcerated before and was already serving a significant term for the other offences.
“There has to be some light at the end of the tunnel,” Mr Gunning said.
But prosecutor Edward Fitzpatrick said Mule had not participated in any rehabilitation courses since he was taken into custody in April 2016.
Mule will be eligible for parole after serving 14-and-a-half-years in prison.
He has also been banned from contacting the boy.
– AAP
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