RAAF sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh allegedly sent thousands of messages to underage victims to obtain child sex images, court hears
Prosecutors will trawl through 8000 pages of Instagram messages allegedly sent by a RAAF sergeant to children to get sexual images.
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A Royal Australian Air Force sergeant allegedly used Instagram to send thousands of messages to underage victims in order to obtain child exploitation material, a court has heard.
On Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court was told Sgt Jacob Donald Walsh, 35, of Blakeview, used the social media platform to communicate with 15 children.
He was arrested and charged with 47 child sex charges, including producing exploitation material and seeking to make a child amenable to sex
The Director of Public Prosecutions requested an eight-week adjournment to assess 8000 pages of Instagram messages and identify “specific examples” of alleged behaviour.
“The charges on each of the files are all closely related. The prosecution’s case is that he has communicated with the children who have then provided photos to him,” the DPP said.
At a previous hearing, prosecutors alleged police had identified 25 further victims, 21 of whom were interstate or overseas, after Walsh surrendered his computer passwords.
The prosecutor said the charges laid against Sgt Walsh so far did not encompass the totality of alleged offending discovered within his computers.
He is yet to plead to 21 aggravated counts and 19 basic counts of producing child exploitation material.
He is further charged with three aggravated counts of making a child amenable to sex and one count of causing a child to expose themselves.
Sgt Walsh is also accused of two counts of dishonestly communicating with a child, and one count of doing so to make them amenable to sex.
Finally, he is charged with one count of disseminating child exploitation material online.
It is alleged the offending occurred at several locations in Adelaide’s northern suburbs between May 2020 and January 2021.
In September, Sgt Walsh abandoned his bid for bail due to investigations by a police officer who brought down infamous pedophile Ruecha Tokputza.
Sgt Walsh will appear in court again in June.
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