Ex-RAAF intelligence expert Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh jailed for child sex offending

This air force spy who used his skills to abuse 15 girls online has wept in court after being slapped with Australia’s heaviest paedophile sentence.

RAAF Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh pleaded guilty to 230 charges after he was busted by SA’s Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team.

Australia’s worst-ever paedophile will serve a national record sentence for his hundreds of crimes, which a judge says were so “brazen, disturbing and heinous” as to warrant 457 years behind bars.

On Friday, former RAAF intelligence expert Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh put his head in his hands and wept as the District Court imposed in excess of 5487 months’ jail.

However, Judge Joanne Tracey said the law prohibited “artificial and crushing” sentences – and so jailed Walsh for 22 years, with a non-parole period of 17 years and eight months.

Her sentence sets a new national precedent for the punishment of online predators who use the internet to deceive, groom, pressure and abuse children via social media.

It is the heaviest sentence ever imposed in this country upon a child sex offender who has not physically touched one of their victims.

The precedent bolsters arguments by law enforcement, psychologists and victims’ rights advocates that online offending is just as damaging to children as contact offending.

The sentencing record for contact offending is 40 years, with a 28-year non-parole period, imposed upon paedophile Ruecha Tokputza – nicknamed “the child collector” – in 2019.

In a marathon 75-minute sentencing, Judge Tracey told Walsh he deserved no leniency for his record 230 crimes, save for his guilty pleas.

She said his claims that autism were the cause of his offending were particularly egregious.

“There were 215,000 messages exchanged between you and your 15 child victims … the details of those conversations are stunning, very disturbing and show a callous disregard” she said.

“You created a false identity and then deleted it before police attended your home, you denied the offending and you continued to communicate with two victims while on bail.

“Your attention to detail, organisation and focus on a specific task arguably all helped you to commit this offending so effectively.

“I accept the relevance of mental health diagnoses in sentencing, but they also must be weighed against the severity of offending.

“Here, that can only be described as brazen, shocking and devoid of any regard for the frailties and vulnerabilities of the children you abused so regularly and for so long.”

A former RAAF intelligence expert, Walsh pursued children around the world for sex.

Walsh, 35, of Blakeview, used the identity “Jace Edwards” – and photos stolen from the social media account of his stepdaughter’s boyfriend – to commit his crimes.

He also trained and mentored another man in online child abuse – Cameron Robert Bowen, who is serving a 15-year prison term.

Both men were caught by the painstaking work of SA’s elite Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team, a task force comprised of AFP and SA Police officers.

In court, Walsh apologised and asked for mercy, blaming his autism, internet addiction and military service – his ex-wife, meanwhile, denounced him as a liar.

On Friday, members of JACET and an officer from the US Department of Homeland Security listened as Judge Tracey detailed each of Walsh’s 230 crimes against the 15 girls.

She said the youngest victim was just 10 years old, and many were suicidal, self-harming, in state care or survivors of past sexual abuse.

Judge Tracey said that did not stop Walsh, who even pressured the girls to satisfy his whims while they were hospitalised, at school or significantly unwell.

“You took advantage of children, some of whom were very vulnerable, communicated with them very frequently and established a relationship with them,” she said.

“You made them think they were someone special to you, and you manipulated and exploited them for your own sexual gratification in a most heinous and disturbing way.

“It’s not difficult to conclude that each of them suffered significant trauma because of their interactions with you, and will likely continue to do so.”

She backdated Walsh’s sentence to his arrest in August 2021, making him eligible to seek release on parole from April 2039.