SA court told RAAF Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh has 25 more alleged child victims around the world
A senior RAAF officer already charged with child sex offending coerced 25 further victims by “leveraging” online chats against them, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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Police investigating a serving RAAF officer accused of nearly 50 child sex crimes have identified 25 further victims, 21 of whom are interstate or overseas, a court has heard.
On Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court was asked to postpone Jacob Donald Walsh’s case so he can be charged with further offending carrying a maximum life sentence.
Police prosecutor Dominic Crosby said the charges laid against Sgt Walsh so far did not encompass the totality of alleged offending discovered within his computers.
“In excess of 1000 messages, consisting of between 10,000 and 60,000 lines of chat each, directly relate to grooming children for specific sexual activities,” he said.
“We will allege Sgt Walsh has been leveraging that material against the children to make them amenable to more serious offences.
“There are 25 further victims that have been identified (and) 21 referrals to multiple law enforcement agencies interstate, federally and overseas, to have them interviewed.”
Sgt Walsh, 35, of Blakeview, has 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.
The court has previously heard the offending occurred at several locations in Adelaide’s northern suburbs between May 2020 and January this year.
In September, Sgt Walsh abandoned his bid for bail due to investigations by a police officer who brought down infamous pedophile Ruecha Tokputza.
On Thursday, Mr Crosby told Magistrate Michelle Sutcliffe that SA’s Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team needed five more months to conclude that investigation.
“The new charges will include dishonestly communicating with a child, maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and producing abuse material,” he said.
“This newly-discovered conduct occurred between 2018 and this year … there are also 11,000 video files and 141,000 image files.
“That’s a substantial quantity of material, and this is a complex matter.”
Bill Morris, for Sgt Walsh, did not oppose the long adjournment, and Ms Sutcliffe remanded his client in custody to face court again in April.
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