YEARS before he was a truck driver who killed another driver in a crash on the New England Highway, David James Price was a Scout leader who preyed on a 15-year-old boy at excursions, camping trips and fundraisers in the Hunter.
Price, now 61, was jailed on Tuesday for a maximum of six years after he pleaded guilty to repeatedly sexually and indecently assaulting the boy at Scouts events in the mid-1980s.
Price, who came to Australia as an 18-month-old and never gained citizenship, will be eligible for release in February next year when he will likely be deported to the UK.
The sentence brings to an end six years of developments, DNA links, charges, dismissals and deportation threats as detectives delved into Price's history in the wake of the crash at Beresfield that claimed the life of 30-year-old Ellalong man Daniel Milne.
After Price was found guilty of causing the crash and jailed for a maximum of two-and-a-half years in Newcastle District Court in May, 2018, he underwent a DNA swab, routine for an inmate entering custody, that detectives alleged led to a breakthrough in the 2006 random sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy, who was allegedly attacked by a stranger in a public toilet block at Cardiff.
But two years later again, in September 2020, the DPP made a determination that there should be no further proceedings and the charges were dismissed.
With no charges holding him in custody, it was expected that Price would either be released or taken into immigration detention, where he would begin a fight against deportation.
But the next day, detectives revealed they would be charging Price again, this time over the sexual and indecent assaults he committed as a Scout leader in the mid-1980s.
Defence barrister Rob Hussey said on Tuesday that detectives had known about the Scouts allegations as far back as 2018 but had not charged Price until his other charges were about to be dismissed two years later.
"There are two possible inferences here," Mr Hussey said. "It was done deliberately or they were being lazy."
Price ultimately pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of indecent assault relating to attacks on the boy at Edgeworth, Cessnock and Mungo Brush.
The man read a powerful victim impact statement to the court on Tuesday, outling the many effects of Price's abuse.
"I was preyed upon as a vulnerable teenager," he said. "Jimmy knew it and took full advantage of that."
The man listed off numerous mental health and substance abuse issues he now suffered, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, self-loathing and a lack of trust in people.
"There are more issues but you get the general idea of how you helped ruin my life," the man said.
Judge Roy Ellis jailed Price for a maximum of six years, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months, backdating the sentence due to the prosecution delay.
