Adelaide man, woman face court charged over alleged sexual abuse of foster children

An Adelaide couple sent more than 30,000 messages discussing the sexual abuse of two foster children and went “spotting” for more victims, a court has heard.

A northern suburbs couple facilitated the sexual abuse of two foster children, went “spotting” in shopping malls for more victims and discussed their alleged crimes via 30,000 text messages, a court has heard.

On Thursday, a 36-year-old man and 44-year-old woman asked the Adelaide Magistrates Court to release them on bail over a combined 40 child abuse and exploitation charges.

Under SA law, the couple cannot be identified in order to safeguard the privacy and wellbeing of the alleged victims, a boy and girl who have been in care since they were just weeks old

SA police prosecutors urged the court to keep the couple in custody, saying they posed a risk to not only their alleged victims but all young people in the community.

“The nature of this offending, the type and level of sexual desire that has been shown through their messages, shows they are inappropriate people to be in the community,” the prosecutor said.

“There are some 30,000 messages between the parties going into great and graphic detail about the sexual acts performed or wanting to be performed upon these two victims.

“It then escalates to the man messaging the woman, asking if she can find further female victims for him.

“He messages her about their foster daughter’s friend, saying he cannot wait to have her.

“They discuss going out to the shops, which they called ‘spotting’ … he looks for young children, she looks for young children, and they discuss this.

“There is a real risk posed by these two defendants to young children.”

The northern suburbs couple are accused of facilitating the sexual abuse of their two foster children. Picture: File / iStock

The man and the woman were arrested on Wednesday by detectives from the elite Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team.

The man has yet to plead to four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two counts of communicating to making a child amenable to sex.

He is further charged with 12 counts of producing child exploitation material.

The woman is charged with two counts of communicating to making a child amenable to sex.

and 13 counts of producing child exploitation material.

She is further charged with three counts of disseminating that material, and four counts of permitting unlawful sexual intercourse at her residential premise.

On Thursday, the police prosecutor said JACET required at least seven months to go through the “massive volume” of digital evidence already gathered.

She said that, if bailed, the couple could interfere with the investigation by destroying further digital evidence.

She said investigators had already uncovered photographs of the children sent by the woman to the man.

“The female defendant has made admissions to police in relation to her knowledge of the unlawful sexual intercourse with both victims,” she said.

“She has also made admissions as to the grooming and the dissemination.”

She said the messages showed the woman and the man discussing his abuse of the children before and after it occurred, and in great detail.

“He has made no admissions, but she has made full admissions as to him describing to her, in great detail, what he did,” she said.
“There is a strong and genuine risk to children in the community from these defendants, this is not a mere hypothetical threat based on chat logs.”

Counsel for the couple said the concerns of the police were “entirely speculative” and no reason to deny their clients bail.

The man’s lawyer said the messages were “role-playing and fantasy, certainly of an unlawful kind”.

Magistrate Simon Smart ordered home detention bail reports and remanded the couple in custody until next week.