Parts of the estate of wealthy Canberra man John Flynn have been auctioned off, but few people know the Tattersall’s heir was suspected of being one of Australia’s worst paedophiles despite never being charged.
Over the past few days, Flynn’s collection of more than 160 classic cars went under the hammer at Queanbeyan.
But his victims said his wealth and philanthropic activities masked a more sinister life.
In the early 1990s Flynn made repeated trips to India, and was arrested in 1995 after he was caught trying to take several thousand antique coins out of the country.
He was imprisoned under state of emergency laws, and languished in New Dehli’s infamous Tihar Jail for more than a year.
But behind the scenes lawyers, diplomats and officials said the Indian Government used the coins as a way to lock up Flynn, a known paedophile.
Back in Australia, Flynn was investigated by police for bringing boys from India, Fiji and Sri Lanka into the country, where they lived with him at his houses in Sydney and Canberra.
Legal records show Flynn was able to bring in up to 60 boys, potentially making him one of the worst paedophiles in Australian history.
Flynn never convicted
Alleged victim Roger Paramasivam said in a police statement Flynn brought him and at least three other boys into the country when he was underage.
According to the statement, the boys were forced to sleep with Flynn and sexually abused.
“In the evenings everybody had their turn to go to his room and massage him,” Mr Paramasivam’s statement said.
“During these times he would perform … sex on me … this continued for a year and would have occurred about 50 times.”
Despite the statement, the police investigation was not continued, prompting former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery to pursue Flynn for damages.
The case went all the way to the High Court, but was lost in the end, due to the statute of limitations.
A death notice for Flynn was posted in May.
He was never convicted of sex offences against children.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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