20yo Craigmore man investigated after being found while naked in a car with a 13yo
Granted bail after being arrested while naked in a car with a young girl, a further investigation led to an alleged 20-year-old serial paedophile facing life behind bars if guilty.
North & North East
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After being arrested while allegedly stark naked in the back of a car with an underage teenager, an investigation led to a young man being charged with at least 43 child sex offences.
The young Craigmore man, Jacob Christopher Molyneaux, faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court last month when details of his alleged offending and the subsequent investigation were heard.
A police prosecutor told the court Mr Molyneaux had been charged after his naked arrest, before his phone was seized and further charges followed.
Analysis of his phone, the prosecutor told the court, had led to him being charged with 40 different counts of child sex offending.
Those charges included eight counts of procuring a child for sexual activity – one aggravated – and 26 of producing child exploitation material – three aggravated.
Mr Molyneaux also faces a further two charges of rape relating to two different people, both occurring on December 9, 2020 at Blakeview when he was just 18-years-old.
The prosecutor last month told the court police were “potentially” in the process of laying “further charges of alike nature”, but records show those charges have as yet not been laid.
The Elizabeth Magistrates Court last year heard Mr Molyneaux was originally granted bail on the charges of rape as well as charges making a 13-year-old girl amenable to sexual activity, two of indecent assault and two of gross indecency stemming from the naked arrest.
His bail was revoked after he allegedly breached it when police found him using the online webcam site Omegle.
The court heard Mr Molyneaux allegedly used online and social media sites to access child exploitation material.
Investigations, the court heard last year, were ongoing into allegations Mr Molyneaux used instant messaging service Telegram, using the name “Harry F”, to ask for “child porn” and access a notorious cloud storage facility containing child abuse imagery.
The court heard Mr Molyneaux had allegedly been using social media when two 14-year-old girls exposed their breasts to him, and that he activated a Snapchat account under the name “Vegemite Guy”.
Mr Molyneaux’s use of social media led to him being further charged with breaching his bail.
The allegations against Mr Molyneaux continued in the state’s courts without pleas until last month when the 20-year-old pleaded not guilty to the two charges of rape.
No pleas have been made to any other of the allegations, but Nick Thomson, for Mr Molyneaux, last month told Magistrate John Wells the charges relating to the naked arrest would likely resolve by way of a plea to gross indecency.
The young Craigmore man has been behind bars on remand on all of the charges since October last year.
A home detention bail last year was rejected by Magistrate Brian Nitschke swatted away Mr Thomson’s suggestion spending time in prison after allegedly breaching his bail had been a “salutary reminder”.
Mr Molyneaux will next face court in May.
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