SA District Court jury finds Andrew William Richards guilty of online abuse offences despite his claims of rescuing kids from sex slavery

Police say this man is a sex abuser. He says he’s an international hero rescuing children from slavery and organ harvesting. Now a jury has decided his fate.

When elite police accused Andrew Richard Williams of paying $65,000 over 14 years to human traffickers in the Philippines, he did not deny the accusation.

But when prosecutors alleged Richards was having children abused, while he watched over the internet, for his sexual gratification, the Elizabeth pensioner insisted they were wrong.

“It was training for me to be able to negotiate with terrorists and do rescues of girls they were trying to sell for sex slavery,” he told a District Court jury this month.

“I started (after) my estranged wife was murdered and cannibalised (by) travelling cannibals from Papua New Guinea … she was invited to lunch and became lunch.

Andrew William Richards outside court. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“You’ve got to talk in a certain way which says you’re a potential customer for them … I didn’t do the physical rescues, was the researcher and the informant, I provided the funding.

“You’ve got to ‘buffalo’ them, pull the wool over their eyes (and) rescue the kids from body shops, like chop-chop, for organs (that) are sent to China.”

Richards, 67, was arrested by the Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team in 2020 and originally pleaded guilty to offences including engaging in sex with a child outside of Australia and accessing child abuse material.

However, he then fired his lawyer, withdrew those pleas and elected to represent himself at trial.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged Richards’ sexual motivation was proved by thousands of Skype messages instructing persons overseas what he wanted done to the children.

Giving evidence, Richards told jurors his alleged victims were “the same person” – his girlfriend, whom he rescued two weeks after his ex-wife’s death.

That woman, he said, helped train him to rescue other people and have them rehomed in orphanages built using the $65,000 he provided.

Richards claimed he was saving children from sex slavery and organ harvesting – a jury disagreed, finding him guilty of sexual exploitation. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“In 2018, I did a rescue of 50 children from body shops, 14 kids from sex slavery and stopped 600 bags of shabu – that’s methylamphetamine cut with caffeine,” he said.

“I was working under international law, and (Australian) charges are illegal to be used on a person who’s stopping genocide crimes, even if their acts break international law.”

His girlfriend, he said, could not give evidence on his behalf because she was also dead.

“Our group (of rescuers) was targeted, as an assassination, in October 2022 and Mount Gambier prison was hacked by China,” he said.

“China is where the organs and body parts go to from the Philippines.”

After deliberating for just over four hours, the jury found Richards guilty of all five offences with which he had been charged.

Judge Geraldine Davison remanded him in custody to face sentencing submissions in May.