Christopher Cooksley pleads guilty to child sex crimes dating back more than 40 years

Christopher Gary Cooksley faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to charges of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child and indecent assault.

An agreed statement of facts shows the man, who now lives in NSW, committed the historical offences while residing in Canberra in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He met the victim while working at a Holt service station in 1978, when the boy was 11.

The boy went to the business to buy lawnmower oil and, after striking up a friendship with Cooksley, attended the petrol station regularly to help fix up old cars in the workshop.

Cooksley stopped working at the service station at the end of 1978 but the pair continued working on cars together.

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He gained the trust of the victim's family to the extent the boy would sometimes have dinner in O'Connor, where Cooksley lived at the time, and sleep over.

The first instance of physical abuse occurred in the loungeroom of the offender's home in 1980, when Cooksley performed an obscene act on the boy and urged him to stay quiet.

Cooksley told the child it was OK "as long as it feels good", and that other people would not understand.

"Sexual activity became a regular occurrence between the offender and the victim, happening two to three times a week at the offender's house until partway through 1981, over a period of approximately nine months," the agreed facts state.

Cooksley was, having left his employment at the service station, by this stage working as a real estate salesman.

The agreed facts note that he also sexually abused the boy in NSW when they took trips across the border for driving lessons and holidays.

Around the time the abuse stopped, the victim was "sent away" from Canberra to live with his grandmother interstate because of behavioural issues and poor academic results.

The victim first reported the offending to NSW Police in 2008, and the following year Cooksley received a 21-month jail sentence for six counts of indecent assault.

"The ACT aspect of the offending could not be prosecuted at the time due to legislative time limitations that were subsequently repealed in 2013," the agreed facts state.

"The victims later participated in evidence in chief interviews with the [Australian Federal Police] in 2020 and 2021 that resulted in the current charges before the court."

After Cooksley pleaded guilty to the two charges on Thursday, prosecutor Julia Churchill withdrew a further three counts of indecent assault.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker then committed Cooksley to the ACT Supreme Court for sentence, with the case to be placed in an administrative list there next Thursday.

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