Online sex predator Andrew Lenton jailed for nine years for grooming children across the world

This man lurked in chatrooms, grooming little boys from around the world. When he went to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old boy for sex, he instead found himself confronted by police.

An “online predator” groomed children from around the world, coaxing them into sending explicit photos of themselves to him, from the comfort of his Adelaide CBD home.

Andrew Lenton, 36, was caught in an elaborate police sting that found him preying on children in online chat forums directed at Adelaide teens.

Lenton was arrested on January 27, 2022, when he went to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old boy for sex, but instead found himself confronted with officers from the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Taskforce.

Officers had been communicating with Lenton for six months before his arrest – during which time the messages from the older man became increasingly sexualised and explicit.

Officers discovered almost 300,000 images spread across his computer, mobile phone and a memory card, the vast majority of which were child exploitation material.

When officers accessed his phone they found 241 unopened chat messages on a variety of online messaging applications.

Last week, District Court Judge Liesl Kudelka said conversations analysed by police showed Lenton’s victims were spread across Australia as well as the rest of the world.

Lenton swung between weeping during sentencing and casually cleaning his fingernails as his crimes were read out.

Andrew Lenton has been jailed for almost a decade for grooming children across the world from his Adelaide home. Picture: Facebook.,

Lenton sent sexual messages and a photo of his penis to a 13-year-old boy in Victoria who has yet to be identified.

In one chat Lenton was communicating with a 12-year-old boy in Florida, US, who he convinced to send nude photos of himself and his brother.

In another, Lenton sent sexual messages and a photo of himself naked to a 13-year-old boy in South Africa, trying to get him to “trade” naked images of himself.

Judge Kudelka said the charged offences were “just the tip of the iceberg”.

There were so many images of child exploitation on Lenton’s computer and memory card that officers could not review them all.

“(The investigating officer) exceeded reviewing the recommended maximum reviewable files so that she could bring to the court’s attention the quantity of material that you had collected,” Judge Kudelka said.

Andrew Lenton has been jailed for almost a decade for grooming children across the world from his Adelaide home. Picture: Facebook.,

Lenton was initially released on bail but quickly breached his conditions by procuring a mobile phone and going on social media to communicate with a child under 18.

“No-one wants sexual predators like you in the community,” Judge Kudelka told a weeping Lenton.

“So much time, energy and resources are spent on trying to keep people like you away from children because unfortunately people like you do exist.”

He was sentenced to a total of 14 years, two months and 28 days behind bars.

Judge Kudelka reduced the sentence to nine years to account for concurrency and to avoid imposing a “crushing sentence”.

Lenton is a serious repeat offender under current legislation and Judge Kudelka imposed the mandatory four fifths non-parole period of seven years, two months and 13 days.

Judge Kudelka commended the police for their efforts in identifying Lenton and bringing such a significant case to court.