Ford was sentenced to eight years in jail with an earliest release date of March 2023.

The offences date back to the 1990s when the four male victims were aged between 10 and 15 years of age.

In one case, after sexually assaulting the child victim whom he had asked to mow his lawn, Ford, a diabetic, produced a lancing device from a diabetes test kit and pricked both his and the victim’s thumbs to draw blood. He stated words to the effect of, “ we can’t tell anyone about this, we’re blood brothers now”.

In another case, Ford purchased sex toys and used them to anally rape his young victim.

Ford would show the children pornography, and gave two of the older victims alcohol and cigarettes in return for sexual favours.

Ford was convicted of 18 child sex offences including assault, commit acts of indecency, aggravated indecent assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault and sexual intercourse with a child under 16.

Ford was first arrested and charged in February 2016, before being released on conditional bail.

He was arrested again in August the same year on additional charges, and again was released on bail.

After initially pleading not guilty, Ford changed his plea to guilty earlier this month and his bail was revoked. He was sentenced in Queanbeyan on Thursday.