Predator unmasked: SA child sex tourist Ruecha Tokputza pleads guilty to 51 offences

This Adelaide man abused 11 babies and boys — some as young as 15 months old — in Australia and overseas, in one of the state’s worst cases of sex tourism. His crimes have been compared to monstrous Families SA paedophile Shannon McCoole.

Paedophile Ruecha Tokputza’s social media accounts are filled with images of him posing with children.

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An Adelaide man violated 11 babies and boys, some as young as 15 months old, in Australia and overseas — and shared his crimes online — in one of the state’s worst cases of sex tourism.

The Advertiser can reveal Ruecha Tokputza groomed Australian and Thai children for sex, then filmed their torment to encourage fellow predators to follow in his footsteps.

He amassed a vast collection of thousands of images and videos of child exploitation, adding to it by attending an Adelaide swimming pool and filming boys as they changed.

Tokputza, 30, of Mile End, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday by video link from Mount Gambier Prison.

He was arrested in January following a joint investigation by Australian Federal Police, SA Police, NSW Police and Interpol.

However, his identity — and all details of his case — were automatically suppressed by state legislation banning publication of child sex offence matters until the case is committed to a higher court.

Tenacious investigators who ended Tokputza’s depraved six-year crime spree have compared the scale of his abuse to notorious Families SA paedophile Shannon McCoole.

The AFP initially charged Tokputza with six offences, adding a further 51 in September and an additional 17 counts in November.

On Friday, Commonwealth prosecutors told the court they would drop 23 of the counts in exchange for Tokputza’s confession to the remaining 51 offences.

Craig Caldicott, for Tokputza, said there was no need to read the charges to his client.

“It’s ‘guilty’ to all 51 counts — I’ve spoken to him only 10 minutes ago and reaffirmed my instructions,” he said.

“Ordinarily I would provide the court with a signed copy of those instructions, but my client is down in Mount Gambier.”

Paedophile Ruecha Tokputza with a child at a swimming pool. Some of his offences were committed in swimming centre change rooms.

Many of the images appear to have been taken overseas.

Court documents, obtained by The Advertiser, show Tokputza pleaded guilty to 17 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 14.

Those counts, as well as six aggravated counts of indecent assault, all relate to the same Australian victim, who Tokputza repeatedly abused over a six-year period.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of committing sexual acts upon, and five counts of having sexual intercourse with, children outside of Australia.

Those counts, together with three counts of persistent sexual exploitation of a child, relate to Tokputza’s trips to Thailand between January 2014 and November 2017.

All victims were boys, and while the identities of some — aged 15 months, 18 months, four and seven — are given in the documents, others are simply said to be “under the age of 16”.

Tokputza further admitted indecently filming boys under the age of 17 as they dressed “within a swim centre change room” on May 21, 2017 — the location of the centre is not disclosed.

Ruecha Tokputza travelled to Thailand multiple times between 2014 and 2017.

He pleaded guilty to one count of accessing, nine counts of transmitting, one count of possessing and one count of producing child exploitation material.

That material, together with one count of distributing child exploitation material overseas, relate to Tokputza’s personal collection of images and videos.

The documents show Tokputza was in possession of “12,500 image files” and “650 video files” of “known child exploitation material”.

Much of that material featured his Australian and Thai victims, which he also transmitted to like-minded offenders in both countries.

The documents reveal Tokputza used an online messaging app to transmit both still images and video files to fellow child sex predators.

He also used the app to discuss offending with those men, talking about “guys having sex with guys”.

He now faces a lengthy prison term after pleading guilty to 51 offences of child abuse and exploitation.

In one conversation, he encouraged another man to visit Thailand and “engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16”.

That constituted another Commonwealth offence, to which Tokputza pleaded guilty on Friday.

Magistrate Jayanthi McGrath remanded him in custody to face sentencing submissions in the District Court in January.

SA Police and the AFP declined to comment on the investigation because Tokputza has yet to be sentenced.