Boxing great Jeff Fenech’s brother Paul is sentenced for kidnap and sex assault of boy, 13, in 1980

A  man kidnapped and sexually assaulted as a 13-year-old boy by the brother of Australia’s greatest boxer Jeff Fenech has told his abuser ‘death isn’t good enough for you’.

The victim faced Paul Godfrey Fenech in a western Sydney courtroom on Friday and told the 66-year-old: ‘You sexually assaulted me over a period of hours and many times. 

‘You took my innocence away. I can only pity you, the pathetic person and monster that you are.’

The man, now aged in his 50s, looked directly at Fenech as he delivered his victim impact statement to the Penrith District Court, telling the man who raped him as a child that his life since had been ‘a living hell’.

Fenech, who is the boxing legend Jeff Fenech’s older brother, pleaded guilty in March to indecent assault of a male, buggery and detaining for advantage.

Police facts in the case said that Paul Fenech, then aged 23, detained the young teenager after luring him and his two 12-year-old friends to a family farm, ostensibly for a horse-riding weekend.

The grisly details of the sex attack included the victim yelling ‘stop, stop’ as he was assaulted while his young friends were detained in a locked room next door.

Fenech later threatened that if the boy talked he’d ‘end up in the vege garden’ with ‘your mum … there too’. 

At the time of the offences, Jeff Fenech was yet to achieve his future fame in the boxing ring, and his brother Paul was one of five Fenech siblings living in Sydney’s Marrickville.

Paul Fenech (above at his inner western Sydney home) – the brother of boxing legend Jeff Fenech – pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault, buggery and detain  for advantage against a 13-year-old boy

Paul Fenech is the older brother of Jeff Fenech (above), the boxing legend who achieved world fame as a champion in three different boxing weight divisions

All the charges relate to the night of October 4, 1980 at a Fenech family farm in Berkshire Park which then was a relatively rural suburb 55km west of Sydney’s CBD

The victim told Paul Fenech on Friday:  ‘I had to grow up very quickly. I’m a loving person but I hate being touched.

 ‘I’ve not been able to have a proper relationship my entire life, Mr Fenech, because of you.’

All the offences occurred on the night of October 4, 1980 at Berkshire Park, which then was a relatively rural suburb 55km west of Sydney‘s CBD.

Back in 1980, Paul Fenech worked for Aristocrat poker machines at Rosebery and lived at the farm which was frequently visited by his mother, Mary, and siblings. 

His younger brother Jeff would later go on to reach fame as a four-time world boxing champion, and be regarded as Australia’s greatest boxer known affectionately in the boxing ring as ‘the Marrickville Mauler’.

The International Boxing Federation Champion from 1985 to 1987, Jeff Fenech went on to hold the WBC super-bantamweight title from 1987 to 1988, and the WBC featherweight title from 1988 to 1990.

More recently, Jeff Fenech has been awarded his fourth world title three decades after a controversial draw against Azumah Nelson in Las Vegas in 1991, which the WBC overturned in November 2022 to give the Australian the win. 

Paul is the second of six brothers and sisters, the youngest of whom is Jeff. 

Paul’s victim was a Year 7 schoolboy when he accompanied his mother to a barbecue and met Paul Fenech, introduced as ‘Godfrey’,  who invited him to go riding at his farm the following weekend.

Paul Fenech is being sentenced on historical sex offences against a young man,who told his accuser in court ‘you took my innocence away’

Enjoying a cigarette at his Sydney home, Paul Fenech was keen to evade scrutiny after his arrest last year

The police facts tendered in court are that the teenager and two friends aged 12 arrived at the property on the October holiday long weekend in 1980, intending to stay overnight.

After trying to ride a horse, which kicked the 13-year-old, the three young people sat on the verandah and were allegedly served twist tops of beer, which the teenager drank half of and began to feel ‘unco-ordinated’.

Paul Fenech helped the boy to a barn 50m away and when he regained consciousness ‘he was bent over a bale of hay and his pants and underpants were down a short way’.

He ‘felt pain’ and Paul Fenech was behind him ‘pulling up the zipper of his pants’, but the boy fell back down and then woke up at 7pm in Fenech’s bed.

According to the agreed facts: ‘He was naked. He felt like he was unable to move or speak. The offender was next to him. He was also naked.’ 

Jeff Fenech during his boxing career, fighting Azumah Nelson in Las Vegas in 1991, that ended in a controversial draw which the WBC overturned in 2022,  awarding Fenech with his fourth world title

After Paul Fenech threatened the teen with ‘the vege garden’, the victim said, ‘Please stop. We won’t say anything. We’ll keep quiet. You won’t hear from us again. Just let us sit and wait for my mum to come.’

The next morning after making coffee, Paul Fenech allegedly told the three ‘don’t forget, we’ve made an agreement. Don’t say nothing.’

The teenager’s mother picked them up later that morning and he allegedly noticed bruises and pain.

In court on Friday, the victim said the incident had left him devastated.

He has received counselling as a result and will continue to receive counselling for a long time to come, the court was told.

“I’m going to take back my life. I’m not the victim any more,” he said.

“I can only pity you, the pathetic person and monster that you are.

“Death really isn’t good enough for someone like yourself, sir.”

The victim eventually provided a statement to police in 2020 and Fenech was arrested on February 19 last year.

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