Ex-paramedic Dean Peter Crump locked up in Australian child sex case

Dean Crump pleaded guilty to charges of indecent treatment last week and his jail term was extended by two years, so Crump will be eligible for parole in 2021. Photo / Kenny Rodger

A former New Zealand paramedic has been jailed in Australia for serial child sex abuse.

Dean Peter Crump -- a stepson of A Good Keen Man author Barry Crump -- was convicted after a trial in January for the prolonged abuse of a young girl over a six-year period in Queensland.

Following a sentence of nine years being imposed, four more victims -- all younger than 12 -- came forward to lay complaints.

The 63-year-old pleaded guilty to charges of indecent treatment last week and his jail term was extended by two years, so Crump will be eligible for parole in 2021.

"I just can't even express how bad I feel about having put them [victims] through this," said Crump, according to the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Crump had moved to Australia in 2006 after a long career in emergency medicine in New Zealand.

He qualified as an ambulance officer in 1985 and Herald archives show Crump worked as a paramedic for St John and the rescue helicopter service in Auckland.

A spokeswoman for St John said Crump was qualified as an advanced paramedic and worked as a station officer and staff development officer during his time with the ambulance service.

"Mr Crump has nothing remarkable noted against his employment file and there were no allegations of inappropriate conduct during his time at St John," the spokeswoman said.

"St John considers his actions and offending in Australia to be completely unacceptable and entirely against St John's values and professional standards."

A former colleague remembered working with him at the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust and expressed surprise at the child sex convictions.

After his long service as a paramedic, Mr Crump started work as a combat medic in Iraq in 2004 as part of a private security team.

"My very first day we went through the streets of Mosul and we were stopped by a car bomb ... and I was told to get out and watch my perimeter. And I thought 'holy s***, what do I do? What am I supposed to look at?'. I had no idea," Crump told the Herald in a 2010 interview.

"I thought 'what the f*** am I doing?' I'm frightening a little old man and a little old lady. This is insane. I just smiled at them and said 'it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you'."