Forbes, now 73, who was also a pastor at Adamstown Gospel Church until he publicly admitted the offences and resigned, was sentenced in Newcastle District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to three counts of assaulting a male and committing an act of indecency.

The offences started in the early 1960s, when Forbes himself was a teenager.

He abused one brother before moving onto his younger sibling when the older boy started in the workforce. 

He had met them at a Christian gospel church in suburban Newcastle and had become friendly with the boys’ family.

The brothers didn’t realise each other had fallen prey to Forbes until 1995. They told an elder at Adamstown Gospel Church and a meeting was organised, where Forbes said: “I admit that there was very significant and sinful and very wrong sexual activity that took place. I would have to acknowledge to have been the instigator as I was the oldest person, I will accept responsibility’’.

Forbes agreed to stand down as pastor and, in 1999, resigned from the church and made the public announcement: “When I was a young man, before I was married, I participated in inappropriate and very wrong sexual misconduct.’’

Judge Roy Ellis found Forbes had “excellent” prospects of rehabilitation, citing the more than 50 years of good behaviour since the offences, and said, in his view, Forbes had shown “genuine remorse and contrition”.

Judge Ellis placed Forbes on a two-year good behaviour bond.