Adelaide YouTuber Stephen Perrymeant pleads guilty to 36 child abuse charges, co-offender jailed in US
An Adelaide YouTube creator who spent hours filming documentaries has confessed to dozens of child sex offences. Now, his ties to a US woman who abused a toddler can be revealed.
Police & Courts
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An Adelaide-based YouTuber has confessed to dozens of child sex offences committed in both Australia and overseas – and his ties to a US woman who victimised a toddler can now be revealed.
In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday, Stephen David Perrymeant pleaded guilty to 36 charges ranging from persistent sexual abuse of a child outside of Australia to using the internet to engage a child in sexual activity. Perrymeant’s pleas come just two months after The Advertiser unmasked him by successfully challenging longstanding suppression orders on his identity.
It can now be revealed one of Perrymeant’s co-offender, Becky Gillespie, 29 of Columbus, Ohio in the US, was last week jailed for 23 years for sexual exploitation of a minor and distribution of child exploitation material.
In December 2023, Gillespie created videos of herself sexually abusing a child, 3, and offered them to other users of the social media app Snapchat.
One of those users was Perrymeant who, the US court heard, traded sexually explicit content with her in exchange.
The duo’s arrests were the result of a joint effort by the US Department of Homeland Security, Australian Federal Police and SA’s elite Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team.
Perrymeant, 39 from the southern suburbs, had originally been charged with more than 50 offences and prosecutors alleged he had “at least” 37 victims across Australia, the US, the UK and Poland.
They further alleged he described himself online as “a predator on social media”.
A co-star of his online documentaries, Duncan Langford-Glass, has also been charged with child sex offences including soliciting and accessing child exploitation material, and the alleged sextortion of a 14-year-old girl.
Mr Langford-Glass has pleaded not guilty to the charges and will stand trial in 2026.
On Thursday, Perrymeant pleaded guilty to 12 counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material to himself and one count of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.
He pleaded guilty to eight counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child outside of Australia and two counts of using a carriage service for sexual activity with a child.
He further pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to transmit indecent material, seven counts of persistent sexual abuse of a child outside Australia, and one count of producing child exploitation material.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly being in possession of child exploitation material, one count of using a carriage service to engage a child in sexual activity and one count of possessing or controlling child abuse material using a carriage serve.
Finally, he pleaded guilty to one count of failing to comply with an order to assist with access to a computer.
Prosecutors told the court those pleas were accepted in satisfaction of all of Perrymeant’s offending, and the remaining charges were withdrawn.
Magistrate Brian Nitschke remanded Perrymeant in custody to face the District Court in July, when a date for sentencing submissions will be set.
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