By Else Kennedy Tamara Clark
A prominent mentor for young people in the western Victorian town of Horsham has been sentenced for accessing child abuse material.
Ronald Marks, 74, was sentenced on Wednesday for accessing the material between 2012 and 2021.
Marks is a Wergaia elder known for his roles in children’s cultural education programs in the Wimmera.
Marks’s face features in a large mural on a silo at Sheep Hills, in Victoria’s wheat belt.
A Horsham magistrate fined Marks $7,500 and ordered him to report to Victoria Police for the next eight years.
The maximum penalty for a first offence of possession of child abuse material in Victoria is 10 years in jail.