The 77-year-old man, who has connections to the region, was sentenced in Orange District Court on Thursday, August 24, for indecent assault against six victims who were under the age of 16 over the course of an eight-year period.

The man, who the court was told has shown no remorse, cannot be identified to protect the identity of the victims.

Judge Penny Musgrave said the victims ranged from three or four years old to 15 years old, while one was also assaulted when she was 17.

The court was told the man travelled around the state as part of his role in the religious group and the offences against the children took place in cars and inside the homes of fellow church members.

"The children were touched in situations where they were unable to leave and others were present," Judge Musgrave said about the offences in the cars.

"The offender was in all instances significantly older than the victims."

The offences included sexual touching over clothes, skin-on-skin and digital penetration, including one case where he penetrated a victim causing her pain and held her still so she couldn't get away. Judge Musgrave said that was not an isolated incident.

While alone with one victim the man threatened her saying her parents would die if she told anyone and when she did tell her mother she was told she was telling lies and that she would be beaten.

He also went on to marry one victim and had children with her but after the relationship ended, the children have had little to do with her and continue to support their father. At an earlier hearing a daughter presented information to the court about the challenges her father faced in jail due to his ill health.

The offender's family, as well as victims and their supporters, were present in court when Judge Musgrave read out the offences in graphic detail for each of the eight charges.

Judge Musgrave said in the first two offences the man was staying with the victim's family when she was 10 or 11 years old. They were travelling in the back seat of the car, along with her siblings when he put his hand up her dress and indecently assaulted her.

Two of the other victims were sisters with one being aged nine when he put his hand up her dress and assaulted her while she was sitting on his lap.

Her younger sister was also assaulted in a similar manner when she was aged between five and seven sometime between 1977 and 1979.

In 1979 one of the victims was assaulted in the back seat of the car while her parents were in the front seat.

On at least one other occasion a fellow church worker was also in the back seat when an assault took place.

The man, white-haired and wearing prison greens and glasses appeared in court via and audio visual link from jail, where he's been held since November 16 last year.

"In the 1970s penetration carried a very high penalty," Judge Musgrave, said adding the maximum term for the most serious offence at that time was life imprisonment.

However, she said the type of offending in this case was not dealt with so seriously in the 1970s so she would follow contemporary views of the issue, which have changed significantly over the decades as more was understood about the life-long trauma experienced by victims.

Victim impact statements presented in an earlier hearing for the case detailed the lifelong harm suffered by children who were sexually abused.

Judge Musgrave said the man's references said he was respectable member of the community but that was not uncommon when it came to child sexual assault and the man's position in the church helped him get access to the children.

She said the man has also shown no remorse but instead had demonstrated victim blaming, rationalising and felt wrongly persecuted and has demonstrated no insight into his offending.

"He will find circumstances more onerous than others in the prison population," Judge Musgrave said after detailing his ongoing medical issues, adding he requires a high level of care.

However, she said general deterrence and denunciation are also required and "the only appropriate penalty is one of imprisonment".

However, she said his advanced age must be taken into account and was eligible for a 10 per cent discount due to his guilty pleas.

Judge Musgrave gave the man a six-year and three-month full-time jail sentence with a three-year non-parole order.

The sentence was back-dated to when he went into custody on November 16, 2022, and he can be released on parole on November 15, 2025.

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