A judge once told Peter Norris that he was the worst 13-year-old criminal he had ever met.

In a regional Victorian courtroom that day, Norris already knew he was on a slippery slope.

As the youngest son of convicted felon Clarence "Clarry" Norris, he had to make the gutwrenching decision to cut ties with his beloved father, who was in and out of jail and always on the run from police.

The next time his dad showed up, he couldn't go with him.

"I had to make a big, brave decision to not follow him," he said.

"Had I followed him that day, I've got no doubt that I would have been probably in jail or not alive.

"So as hard as it was and as heartbreaking as it still is, it was still the right decision."

Sitting in the lounge at Club Corowa , where he oversees 80 people in his job as chie

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