Adelaide teenager pleads guilty to hosting chat group sharing abhorrent child abuse material

A teenager has admitted hosting an online chat group trading in child exploitation material and had a price list that charged up to $10,000, a court has heard.

A teenager hosted an online chat group trading in child exploitation material and had a handwritten price list charging up to $10,000 for links to the abhorrent material, a court has heard.

The now-19-year-old also encouraged a man in the USA to abuse a child – and that man was later convicted of the offending.

The teenager appeared in the Youth Court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to four offences, including aggravated disseminate child exploitation material, communicating with a child to make them amenable to sexual activity and hosting a website dealing with child exploitation material.

Rebecca Andersen, prosecuting, said the youth “was actively administrating” an online chat group and traded in the abusive material that depicted children as young as toddlers using Instagram accounts and an online storage platform between January-March 2020.

“The accused has also posted handwritten lists advertising prices for him to disseminate the child exploitation material ranging between $1 and $10,000 based on the type of material,” she said.

Ms Andersen said the accused had also discussed “going into business” with another user, and evidence showed he was paid various sums for the material he shared.

She said in one interaction, the teen posted more than 100GB of material, including 20,000 files.

She said chat logs showed the teenager had conversations with a man in the USA, providing encouragement and advice for him to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl.

“Since that time, police in the US have identified that user … there was a successful conviction in relation to that particular person,” she said.

She asked the court convict and impose a period of detention on the youth, but that period may be suspended on condition of a lengthy supervision order including conditions restricting his internet access and use.

Casey Isaacs, for the teenager, said his client had a learning disorder, a bipolar depressive disorder and had been bullied at school and online from a young age.

He said the teenager, who has since dropped out of school, then found an escape in adult pornography, which later escalated to viewing and dealing in child abuse material after he was approached by another user on Instagram.

“He became addicted to that process, he was receiving money for some of it, but it was more so the alternative reality that it provided,” Mr Isaacs said.

Magistrate Oliver Koehn will sentence the teenager later this month.