A convicted paedophile and former teacher, who escaped imprisonment in a distant part of the globe, is now operating a bed-and-breakfast in Scotland.
58-year-old Gary Bloom, a marked child abuser, set off a wave of public outrage when he was released from court in Victoria, located in southeast Australia, receiving a three-year suspended sentence after he confessed to three counts of indecent assault. Bloom, with a professional background as a geologist and having worked for oil giants like Shell, was permitted by the Australian authorities to return to Aberdeen. There, he was tracked down to a city-centre bed and breakfast.
Concurrently, his victim, just 10 at the time of the attack, has voiced his alarm at Bloom’s evasion of justice, warning that Bloom currently has “unfettered access to children in Glasgow”, Scotland.
The victim, now 49, reacted to the lenient sentence saying, “I wanted to scream out but couldn’t. I’d poured petrol on myself and basically set my life on fire all to watch him walk from court. I felt like nothing more than a file number. Is this what the community expects? Child sexual offenders spending no time in jail?”
Back in 1985, Bloom was employed as a teacher at the Sacred Heart Primary School in Diamond Creek, Melbourne, as well as a swimming coach. He made regular visits to a paddock often frequented by children close to his victim’s home. The County Court of Victoria heard that Bloom visited this area nearly every other day, frequently engaging children in conversation.
Emma Fargher, the prosecutor, said Bloom approached his victim one day in 1985 and took him to a secluded area on the other side of some dense trees, where the abuse took place. The prosecutor stated, “Mr Bloom told the victim that he would find out if he told anyone and that he would get angry.”
The victim’s emotional impact statement read to the court stated, “I kept your secret hidden from almost everyone. I didn’t know how to regain my voice, so I stayed quiet. In those moments, you stole my voice, my sound, my air, my sense of self.”
The court was informed that Bloom had written an apology letter to his victim, arguing that his behaviour was not predatory. However, the judge dismissed his claims, indicating that Bloom had insinuated himself into a group of young kids before carrying out a “clearly unwanted sexual assault” on the boy. The court records revealed that Bloom had moved to Scotland from Melbourne in the 90s.
The presiding Judge, Robyn Harper, said, “You were not exploring your sexuality, you were sexually assaulting a child some 10 years younger than yourself in a devious and opportunistic way.”
In 2019, Bloom’s victim gathered the courage to report the incident to the police, by which time Bloom had relocated overseas. He was charged and released on bail during a trip back to Australia in December 2021. The victim addressed the Australian media, advocating for a change in law that would prevent offenders of historical child sex abuse from receiving entirely suspended jail sentences.
The victim further believes that convicted child molesters should be barred from leaving Australia without alerting overseas police of the potential threat they pose to communities.
As he informed the Sydney Morning Herald, “If my abuser had been charged under what the crime is today, he would’ve been facing about eight years in custody. He walked from court without spending a day in prison. He now has unfettered access to children in Scotland, where he manages a bed and breakfast with his ex-wife.”
He further stated, “We should be encouraging people to speak up. We must learn to live with the discomfort because people like Bloom hope that the uneasiness keeps victims like me silent.”
When Bloom was approached at his B&B in Scotland, a woman commented that he had chosen not to converse. She added, “He has been advised by his lawyer to say, ‘No comment.'”
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