THE wife and children of former Bega Cheese boss Maurice Van Ryn are standing by him despite his admission to being a persistent paedophile, the District Court has been told today.

Facing a maximum penalty of 25 years’ jail, Van Ryn, 59, is fighting to remain on bail pending his sentence for 12 serious child sexual assault charges after an appeal by the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions.

Today’s appeal against his bail comes after Attorney-General Brad Hazzard asked the DPP to look into the shocking case.

The application is the latest test of the government’s softly softly bail laws which will not be replaced until January 8 despite them being overturned by parliament.

The court was told that Van Ryn acknowledged he had a problem and was undergoing chemical castration, drug treatment provided by his doctor.

“His wife and children are sticking by him,” his counsel, Stephen Odgers SC, told the court.

“One of his overwhelming desires is to attend the wedding of one of his children.”

It is understood to be the wedding of a daughter which will take place before he is due to be sentenced in February next year.

But Crown prosecutor John Bowers has asked Judge Rodney Madgwick today to revoke Van Ryn’s bail for the safety of the community, the safety of his victims and because it was what the community expected.

media_camera Maurice Van Ryn, Bega Cheese CEO has numerous pedophilia charges against him.

He said that despite surrendering his passport, Van Ryn was a serious flight risk who had the money to flee to Thailand, where he has a property and which country has no extradition treaty with Australia.

Mr Bowers said there was a claim from one of his Australian victims that when they were in Thailand, Van Ryn had admitted to having a relationship with a Thai boy.

The court heard that Van Ryn had continued to offend while on bail after being initially charged in June.

In July he had tried to kiss one of his victims, a teenage boy. At the time he had not been charged with abusing the boy and there had been no publicity in the Bega area of his initial sexual assault charges, the court was told.

Van Ryn was facing 23 sexual assault charges spanning almost a decade and late last month he pleaded guilty in Bega Local Court to 12 charges with the others replaced by the more serious “persistent sexual abuse of a child” which carries a maximum 25 years’ behind bars.

He had been granted strict bail.

Judge Madgwick said today that Van Ryn was facing a lengthy jail term but as the bail act stood, he could not refuse bail if there was an unacceptable risk of flight that could not be mitigated by the imposition of bail conditions.

Van Ryn has proposed living with his elderly mother in her Merimbula unit, leaving only to visit his lawyer and doctor while being in the company of an adult acceptable to the police.

The judge flagged the possibility of Van Ryn wearing a security anklet or having his finances frozen so he has no access to money to get out of Australia.

The court, sitting in Sydney, has adjourned to 2pm.

Originally published as Paedophile cheese CEO’s family stand by him