A degenerate who raped dogs, sexually assaulted a 91-year-old blind woman and filmed naked children in their homes has been sentenced to 16 years in jail.
Dean Anthony Sellenthin, a lawn mower from Bangalow on the north coast of New South Wales, was convicted of more than 80 sex-related offences committed over six years.
The 44-year-old would work during the day and roam his neighbourhood three or four nights a week, filming unknowing naked women, boys and girls.
Several times on different nights he broke into the home of a blind 91-year-old woman to sexually and indecently assault her while she slept.
He stole dozens of items of women’s and children’s underwear during burglaries described as ‘grievous’ invasions of privacy and had sex 19 times with local dogs.
Dean Anthony Sellenthin has been jailed for 16 years over more than 80 offences including the aggravated sexual assault of a 91-year-old woman and having sex with dogs. He appeared in court on Friday via audio-visual link from the Cessnock Correctional Complex
Sellenthin repeatedly broke into the home of blind 91-year-old woman and sexually and indecently assaulted her while she slept. The woman did not wake during the attacks. Stock image
Sellenthin, whose record of interview with police took two days to complete, told the NSW District Court he was ‘disgusted’ by his crimes.
Judge John North said on Friday that Sellenthin had ‘systematically recorded’ all his offences against adults, dogs and children, so he could relive them for his ‘continuing sexual gratification’.
‘The catalogue of criminality is staggering,’ Judge North said.
‘All of these offences are motivated by the offender’s deviant sexual arousal.’
Judge North described the assaults on the ‘extremely frail’ 91-year-old woman as callous, brazen, gratuitous and ‘committed for deviant sexual pleasure’.
Sellenthin was asked by police how he had felt after committing one assault on the woman and replied:
‘Excited at first but then immediately after I felt bad about it – really bad about it actually.’
Sellenthin was a lawn mower in Bangalow (pictured) on the NSW north coast
Lawn mower man Dean Sellenthin broke into homes and stole dozens of pairs of women’s and children’s underwear for his sexual gratification. Stock image
Judge North said it was only a ‘stroke of good fortune’ the woman had not woken while she was being defiled.
Sellenthin had regularly filmed the intimate parts of children without their knowledge on his night-time raids then ‘carefully catalogued’ the recordings.
He had tried to avoid confrontation with his victims, many of whom were still not aware they had been filmed or had their underwear stolen.
‘For each of the victims the circumstances would have been traumatic and frightening and for many very embarrassing,’ Judge North said.
One of Sellenthin’s distressed victims told the court she was still unable to drive to the shops to purchase replacement underwear.
Judge North found Sellenthin’s filming of children while they were naked particularly abhorrent.
‘These children were meant to enjoy the safety and privacy of their own homes,’ he said.
Sellenthin had been jailed in 2006 for 16 months over similar offences and Judge North found his offending had only escalated over time.
His latest crime spree occurred between 2011 and 2017 when Sellenthin was aged 34 to 41. He was only caught after breaching reporting conditions of being on the child sex offender’s register.
Sellenthin, who appeared in court via audio-visual link from Shortland Correctional Centre in Cessnock, wept while being sentenced to a minimum 12 years in jail.
He pleaded guilty to 83 offences including five counts of bestiality, one of aggravated sexual assault and ten counts of aggravated indecent assault. A further 82 offences were taken into account.
Sellenthin admitted committing 19 separate acts of bestiality against three dogs including a female golden retriever.
He also forced himself upon a dark short-haired bitch and a ‘black and brown male canine’. He had taped the animals’ jaws shut before having sex with them and urinated on one.
‘The video recordings show the dogs apparently on occasion in distress,’ Judge North said.
The names of the dogs were suppressed to protect the identities of their owners.
Judge John North sentenced Sellenthin to a minimum 12 years in the Downing Centre court complex (pictured) on Friday. He will be eligible for parole in November 2029
Sellenthin could not explain his sexual interest in animals but said drug use had contributed to his crimes.
‘I’m disgusted just thinking about how my life got to that point,’ he said. ‘I think with the right services and programs I will not re-offend. I want it to stop.’
Judge North described Sellenthin’s voyeuristic offending as persistent, habitual, compulsive, gratuitous, disturbing and determined.
‘I cannot accept the defence submission that the offences over this many years did not involve planning,’ he found.
‘It is difficult to accept he has real insight into remorse.’
Sellenthin had told the court he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the attacks on the 91-year-old woman, who has since died.
‘I had no right to invade her home, to assault her,’ he said. ‘I had no right to make her feel unsafe.’
At an earlier hearing Judge John North noted Sellenthin had completed a high-intensity sex offenders program when he was previously in custody.
‘He completed it, then he steps up years later to commit offences which are, in some cases, much more serious,’ Judge North said.
Dean Sellenthin waged a campaign of bizarre sexual offending in Byron Bay Shire from 2011 to 2017, stalking victims, having sex with dogs, and photographing naked boys and girls. Pictured is Main Beach at Byron Bay
Judge North noted Sellenthin had helped bring about his downfall be filming his sick crimes.
‘He was the best detective for the Crown that you could ever wish for… because he recorded everything.’
Crown prosecutor Joshua Hanna had said Sellenthin was ‘impulsive’ and that ‘no one’ was safe from him even when inside their own homes.
‘He’s spent 12 years of his adult life involved in sexual offending,’ Mr Hanna said. ‘During this time, no woman or child in his area was safe.
‘He will potentially be a lifelong risk to the community. Children of both sexes, animals, the elderly… there is such a wide range of aberrant desires here.’
Regarding 17 charges of producing child abuse material, Sellenthin’s lawyer Jason Watts said his client had never had any physical contact with the children.
Mr Watts told the court Sellenthin had always admitted his guilt and accepted he would be going to prison for a significant period.
Sellenthin had told the court he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the attacks on the 91-year-old woman, who has since died. ‘I had no right to invade her home, to assault her,’ he said. ‘I had no right to make her feel unsafe.’ Stock image
‘There are aspects to this case that are bizarre, unusual, very upsetting and very off-putting to right-thinking people,’ Mr Watts said.
‘These are lifelong, enduring mental conditions that the offender has, that have led to his offending.
‘It is the accused that needs help, not the dog.’
Sellenthin has suffered depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and issues with alcohol and drug abuse.
Psychologist Jennifer Howell told the court last year that Sellenthin was a chronically lonely and isolated man.
‘There isn’t a label that can be afforded to his range of behaviours,’ Ms Howell said. ‘They don’t fall under one title… certainly it is deviant.’
Sellenthin has been in prison since his arrested in November 2017 and is in protective custody.
He has been bashed by four other inmates, had property stolen from his cell and received no visitors from friends or family since being inside.
When Judge North asked the prisoner if he understood his first possible release date was November 21, 2029 he said: ‘Yes, Your Honour’.
Sellenthin has been bashed in custody and is now under protection. He is being held at Shortland Correctional Centre within the Cessnock prison complex in the Hunter Valley
He then blew his nose and wiped his eyes.