Counsellor guilty of child sex abuse
An experienced counsellor has been convicted for abusing seven different boys under his care when he was in charge of a government run education program in the 1990s.
It has been revealed that Allan Keith Huggins is facing dozens more similar charges in New South Wales, as well as a long jail term for the sexual abuse he dished out in Perth more than 20 years ago.
Huggins, 68, already had a conviction for indecently dealing with a 15-year-old boy in a motel room in Albany in 1991, after which he resigned from his post at the Warminda program.
Now a jury has found he abused seven more young men he was supposed to be helping - and was placed in custody pending his sentencing in June.
Huggins originally faced 49 counts of sexual abuse spanning between April 1990 and April 1991, which took place in Albany, East Victoria Park and Mount Lawley.
Some of the charges were dropped as the trial continued, and today the jury returned guilty verdicts on 16 charges, with seven not guilty verdicts.
Prosecutor Bernard Standish had earlier told the court Huggins oversaw the "school to work" program for the Department of Community Services, which aimed to help troubled teens and give them the life skills to help them find employment.
However, Mr Standish said Huggins also had "a propensity to be attracted to young adolescent males and further had a propensity to act on that attraction".
This came to light when he pleaded guilty to fondling the genitals of a 15-year-old boy, who had been part of the Warminda program, who he had driven from Perth to Albany on the pretext of finding him work.
He abused the boy in a motel room after asking the youngster if he wanted a massage.
Two psychologists interviewed Huggins at the time of his admissions, and both said in their reports that he had told them he had developed an attraction for adolescent males some years earlier.
Huggins also told them he had acted on those impulses between six and eight times, due to factors including work stress and heavy drinking.
Mr Standish said after Huggins quit his role at Warminda, no further inquiries of other boys in the program were made by police at the time - despite at least one other complainant having alleged he was sexually abused.
A fresh police inquiry was launched in 2013, where the new allegations came to light.
All the victims gave evidence during the trial, describing how they were summoned to Huggins' office, before offers of a massage turned sexual.
