Cyber sex trafficker Ian Schapel preyed on poverty and paid as little as $30 to convince parents to abuse children on live streams

A veteran SA public servant preyed on the abject poverty of communities in South-East Asia to convince parents to abuse their children on camera.

A retired public servant exploited desperately poor South-East Asian communities to convince parents to abuse their children online, a court has heard.

Ian Ralph Schapel, 67, pleaded guilty to 50 counts of causing at least 13 children to be abused outside Australia and possessing tens of thousands of images and videos of child abuse.

In a unique case, the Australian Federal Police also tried to seize Schapel’s Adelaide home as an instrument of crime.

On Tuesday, the District Court heard for the first time the extent of Schapel’s offending, which he meticulously recorded and stored in his Mitchell Park home.

He was arrested in Melbourne when he arrived back in Australia in February last year.

While investigations continued, Schapel was released on bail but after police discovered thousands of videos and images in his Adelaide home, he was arrested on April 9, 2020 and has remained in custody since then.

Judge Paul Cuthbertson heard Schapel had paid as little as $30 to parents and “facilitators” overseas so they would allow children as young as three to be abused in live Skype calls.

Court documents show the abuse happened in the Philippines, but Schapel accessed material from Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore as well.

Ian Schapel, pictured in 2010, pleaded guilty to 50 counts of causing children overseas to be sexually abused and possessing thousands of child abuse images.

Schapel contacted “facilitators” through online chat applications. Commonwealth prosecutor Krista Breckweg told the court Schapel had used the chat function to instruct the “facilitators” on what abuse he wanted the children to suffer, taking advantage of the victims’ “dire economic” circumstances.

She said he would send angry messages if the scheduled “shows” did not eventuate, telling one family “you starve now”.

Schapel pleaded to 43 charges of engaging in sexual activity with a child outside Australia.

Ms Breckweg said the charges related to 74 video calls which Schapel filmed and saved on to a USB.

Altogether, the videos amounted to more than five hours of abuse of children.

He also pleaded guilty to three counts of engaging in persistent sexual abuse of three children, who were violated on camera a number of times.

The offending began in 2017, shortly after Schapel retired from 45 years in the public service, which included stints with the commissioner for public employment and the transport minister.

Craig Fabbian, acting for Victims’ Rights commissioner Bronwyn Killmier, read a community impact statement to the court.

“I understand that Schapel was found to be in possession of more than 53,000 image and video files,” he said.

“The videos are confronting and show a level of control by Schapel where he would dictate to the facilitator what act the child would have to perform to receive their payment.

“He was not a bystander, but rather an active participant in the abuse.”

Mr Fabbian said “cyber sex trafficking” was having a horrific impact on economically marginalised communities and “perpetuated economic imbalance”.

Schapel settled a claim against his Mitchell Park house by the AFP for $165,000, half the value of the property.

Chris Kummerow, for Schapel, said his client had lived an “isolated" but normal life during which he was diagnosed with a hoarding disorder.

Schapel will be sentenced in February next year.