SA police raid hundreds of child-sex offender homes, with 62 charged and 24 arrested

Police have raided homes of hundreds of child-sex offenders across the state, with a top cop saying he was “disturbed” by what some officers found.

A “concerning” number of registered child-sex offenders were found to have breached their obligations during a crackdown on repeat offenders.

Coinciding with National Child Protection Week, South Australia Police attended the homes of 377 people on the Australian National Child Offender Register, and raided 262 of the homes over two days last week.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Stephen Taylor said 62 people were charged, and 24 were arrested during Operation Child Safe.

“Of the 24 arrested, 13 were actually charged, somewhat disturbingly, with child exploitation material … and six people were remanded in custody to appear in court this year or next,” Mr Taylor said.

WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE

They also seized 51 devices in total, including 17 computers, 19 mobile phones, nine laptops and tablets and six hard drives or USBs requiring examination.

“All of that material is currently in front of our digital forensic experts that will be analysed and we will anticipate there will probably be further charges at a later stage for some of those people,” he said.

Mr Taylor said not all the homes were searched because not everyone was home during the time officers visited.

The operation was conducted in Adelaide, the Barossa, Mid North, Eyre Peninsula and Limestone Coast to ensure registered child-sex offenders were complying with the rules.

People on the national register are required to notify police of an ownership of a vehicle, and of an active email address. They are not to have contact with children.

“The message is really clear as far was we can say, if somebody is on the register, and there’s 2252 on the register here in this state, it’s really important they comply with conditions or we will be paying those people a visit and we’ll have zero tolerance,” Mr Taylor said.

“Obviously children being the most vulnerable and trusting members of our community deserve to be completely safe at all times and that’s why we adopt a zero-tolerance approach.”