Bhuwani Khadka says child abuse material groups were ‘just for the social aspect’, court hears
Having first encountered child abuse material while growing up in a refugee camp, this man has now been revealed in court to have participated in pedophile group chats ‘for the social aspects’.
Police & Courts
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A man who grew up in a Nepalese refugee camp where child exploitation material was traded for as little as $10 had first claimed he had no interest in the pedophile group chats he was a part of – he simply wanted the social interaction.
But in the South Australian District Court earlier this month, Bhuwani Prasad Khadka, 29 of Burton, admitted he was sexually attracted to the material he was sending and viewing in online exchanges with other offenders.
In August 2023, Khadka was charged with a raft of child sex offences including creating, developing, altering, maintaining, controlling or moderating an electronic service for child abuse material.
At the time, court documents alleged he started, then oversaw, a group on the Telegram app that existed solely for the purpose of swapping child abuse videos and photographs.
He has since pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing or controlling child abuse material using a carriage service, inappropriate conduct for the purposes of electronic service and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.
In sentencing submissions last Tuesday, the prosecutor said Khadka had 519 files – including 482 video files – on his devices, kept in a folder titled “CP”.
She said he had been using multiple platforms to engage with the material, including sending it via Facebook Messenger.
“He was the creator and administrator of the Telegram group created in January 2023. He was also a member of WhatsApp groups with a significant number of participants – 57 in one and six in another.
“Until recently, he did deny this was motivated by sexual arousal and maintained it was an automatic download of the material.
We say he is still trying to minimise his behaviour – when asked by (a psychologist) about the participation in the groups he maintained he was involved in them because they provided a social outlet, and people to talk to.”
James Marcus, for Khadka, said his client had first denied any sexual interest in the material, but that position was not maintained.
“Mr Khadka was born into a refugee camp in Nepal, where they lived in structures inhabited by 50-60 people at a time,” Mr Marcus said.
“He was first exposed to child exploitation material when he was himself a child, aged between 10-12 in the refugee camp. He describes that at times people would exhibit child exploitation material and a group would watch it, and that people would sell memory cards of various pornography – adult and child exploitation material – for somewhere between $10-15.
He’s been exposed to that material, which led to a degree of normalisation, or certainly not treating the material with the regard that someone with the benefit of an education in Australia would.
“He now accepts that he was sexually aroused by that material, and he engaged with it.
“Having been arrested and charged for this offending has been a significant wake up call for Mr Khadka, both in terms of the legal consequences, but also to come to terms with having to tell his family and the nature of it.”
Khadka will return to court again in May.
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