How Could You? Hall of Shame-Australia-Christopher Cooksley

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Canberra, Australia, foster parent Christopher Cooksley, 72, who “cared for up to 300 boys has pleaded guilty to historic child sexual abuse.”

He “admitted abusing a teenage boy in the 1980s and has been thrown behind bars after the judge revoked his bail.

Cooksley, who appeared at the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra, Australia, fostered up to 300 other boys as a short-term carer.

Cooksley has already served six months in prison for offences against the boy in New South Wales, and was jailed after the victim reported the crime to police back in 2009, abc.net reports.

However, the ACT court is now dealing with the crimes committed in Canberra, which is where they first met.

Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson has since told the court it would be inevitable that Cooksley would be jailed.

The boy is understood to have met Cooksley at a service station, where he had gone to buy fuel for his mower, the court heard.

In a brave victim impact statement read out to the court, the boy told how Cooksley had caused him to seep into drug and alcohol abuse, which he said he kept hidden from his loved ones.

“The hidden shame of my sexual abuse never left me,” he said.

“I became devoted to wiping out any reality, by wiping myself out. My moral compass went south.”

The boy says he still struggles to come to terms with the abuse today and, after taking to the stand, Cooksley claimed he never committed anything against the nearly 300 children who were under his care when questioned about his history of fostering children.

“Right from the start, I knew it was wrong,” Cooksley said about his abuse of the 13-year-old boy.

While he admitted this meant nothing in the way of the law, he insisted he had not forced the child.

“The activity that took place … I did not force him to do it,” he added.

“I did not physically force him in any way.”

Cooksley, who will be sentenced later this month, also admitted he only stopped the abuse when the boy was taken away from him.”

Foster parent who cared for up to 300 boys pleads guilty to child sexual abuse
[ Mirror 11/3/22 by Adam May]

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