Bendigo County Court Judge concerned paedophile will reoffend after he sentences him to jail

The 41-year-old man, from central Victoria, was still relatively young and had been assessed as having a moderate to high risk of reoffending, the court heard.

Judge Mark Dean said he would need to consider the protection of the community in determining how long to sentence the man to jail.

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The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be sentenced later this month.

"He is dangerous. He poses a danger to the community," Judge Dean said.

Prosecutor David Cordy said the court could not expect the offender to become enfeebled by old age during his sentence.

"Because of his age there's still significant potential in the future for this sort of (paedophilic) behaviour," he said.

The man had abused the two boys in his care over a period of about a decade, starting in 2002 when their mother was out of the house.

Judge Dean said the man had utterly betrayed his wife by abusing her children.

"The worst imaginable betrayal of her is what he did," he said.

"It's hard to imagine anything worse."

The man has pleaded guilty to multiple charges including incest, sexual penetration of a stepchild, and indecent acts with a child under 16. The offences started when the boys were aged between eight and 10 years old.

The court was given a psychological report that stated the man had a paedophilic disorder.

Defence counsel Glenn Cooper said the man had also been assessed as having "cognitive deficits" which fell just short of an intellectual disability. He was also just under the threshold of being diagnosed with anxiety, depression and a personality disorder.

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However, Mr Cordy rejected suggestions that the man's relatively poor intellect in any way explained his crimes.

"He was married for 12 years and has a work history," he said.

"He was a married man and took advantage of that in an abhorrent way. He must have known this was wrong. One can only imagine - because of the duration and type of behaviour - the efforts he went to to conceal this from his wife."

Judge Dean said the mother was devastated by the man's conduct, had divorced him and provided a victim impact statement to the court.

"She was working shift work, working hard to support her family when he was doing what he was doing to her children," he said.

Mr Cordy said the woman had also been studying for a diploma at the time and was doing "everything to advance her family".

Mr Cooper said his client did not always know how to respond in socially appropriate ways and had led a "simple life". He also experienced some hardships while he was growing up and a difficult home life.

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Mr Cordy said the man had adapted well to prison life, where he had spent the past five months on remand. He had undertaken course work and swum in a swimming pool.

"He was able to operate in the community for all of his adult life - the same as everybody else and he is able to operate in his present imprisonment," he said.

"It's often the case where you have a child sex offender who has been offending for years there's no inkling of it until it hits the fan - to use a colloquial expression. It's one of the factors that allows people who want to offend in this way that enables them to do it."

Judge Dean adjourned the matter and said the man would be sentenced on March 28.

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