ONE of two twin brothers who sexually assaulted two boys in Lake Macquarie more than 30 years ago will be eligible for parole in November, 2026.
Richard Mateer was handed an aggregate sentence of seven years in Newcastle District Court on Friday.
His sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest in November 2021, with a non-parole period of five years.
Mateer and his brother Stephen, 71, were both found to have committed a slew of sexual and indecent assaults against two young boys between 1989 and 1993.
The Newcastle Herald has previously reported the pair were suffering from signs of cognitive deterioration.
Stephen Mateer was found unfit to stand trial on the 45 charges against him due to dementia and the pair faced a concurrent special hearing and judge-alone trial in Newcastle District Court last year.
In February, Judge Peter McGrath was told Richard Mateer was now showing the "early signs of cognitive deterioration" and would need to be assessed by a neuropsychologist before he could be sentenced.
Richard Mateer was found guilty of all eight counts against him in relation to the abuse of one boy.
At sentencing on Friday, Judge McGrath ordered that a copy of a report from Richard Mateer's neuropsychologist be given to Justice Health to help them manage his remaining time in custody.
Richard Mateer was not given any discount on his sentence.
In February, one of the pair's victims read an emotional victim impact statement to the twins, telling them he was only an "innocent child" at the time of the offences.
"A child who hoped for a happy, fulfilled future of holidays, fun, health, education, work and family," he said.
"Unfortunately for me none of those came about. Instead, by the actions of an adult, I was denied these positive aspects of life and learned pain, fear, anxiety, violence and depravity."
Stephen Mateer preyed on the two boys, aged between 12 and 14, in the Lake Macquarie area from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
On one occasion, the brothers touched the genitals of one of the boys before inciting him to manually stimulate them. Richard Mateer then raped the child.
Judge McGrath previously found that Stephen Mateer had sexually assaulted that boy and another on separate occasions while taking them for driving lessons.
On another occasion, Stephen Mateer incited the children to touch each other. He had met the boys through the Belmont pizza shop where he worked.
Detectives from Strike Force Arapaima arrested the twins after they were tipped off to a string of alleged sexual assaults against two boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s while investigating the long-unsolved disappearances of Lake Macquarie girls Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson.
