SA RAAF intelligence officer Jacob Donald Walsh pleads guilty to horrifying number of child-sex charges
An RAAF intelligence expert who used photos for blackmail has pleaded guilty to the highest number of child-sex charges ever laid against one person in Australia.
Police & Courts
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An RAAF intelligence expert has made Australian legal history by pleading guilty to 230 charges of child sexual exploitation, abuse and online grooming.
In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday, Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh confessed to the largest child abuse case ever filed against a single person in the nation’s history.
Walsh’s crimes, committed while he worked in “electronic intelligence” for the Defence Science and Technology Group at the Edinburgh RAAF base, involve children and teenagers around the world.
It is the third time in just three years that a single South Australian has broken the record for the worst case of child abuse to go before this country’s courts.
That record was previously held by “the child collector” Ruecha Tokputza, who is serving a 40-year sentence – the longest imposed in Australia for child-sex crimes.
Tokputza’s charges were eclipsed in November last year, when online pedophile syndicate leader and HIV-positive sex predator Jadd William Brooker confessed to 182 crimes.
Like his disgusting peers, Walsh’s case started out small and quickly snowballed as SA’s elite Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team compiled 88,000 pages of evidence against him.
WALSH IS UNMASKED
Walsh’s first arrest – on May 5, 2021 – for two charges went unnoticed and unmarked, and he was released on bail.
But on August 24, 2021, Walsh was arrested for a second time by JACET.
The team, comprised of both SA Police and Australian Federal Police officers, had by that stage gathered enough evidence to charge him with 45 further offences.
When the Elizabeth Magistrates Court granted Walsh bail, prosecutors challenged the decision in the Supreme Court – and revealed the scope of their case.
Walsh had, they alleged at the time, spent eight months using popular social media apps to groom teenagers around the world for sex and illicit photos from them.
Despite the gravity of the charges, Walsh persisted in his bid for bail – until JACET brought in its heavy hitter.
‘BOXING WITH SHADOWS’
SA Police child-rescue specialist Detective Brevet Sergeant Stephen Hegarty had played a key role in bringing Tokputza down.
He filed an affidavit with the court outlining the fake accounts used by Walsh and, faced with such a massive forensic analysis, the airman folded.
“The new information from Detective Sergeant Hegarty puts a whole new complexion on things,” defence counsel Bill Morris told the court in September 2021.
“We would be boxing with shadows in relation to trying to continue this application for bail, as far as our client is concerned.
“He’s agreeable to staying in custody, to co-operating with police and to providing all passwords in relation to the accounts mentioned in the affidavit.”
11,000 VIDEOS: THE CASE GROWS
From there, the case against Walsh grew and spread like a computer virus.
A month later, prosecutors revealed they had identified 25 victims so far and made 21 referrals to police interstate and overseas so the teenagers could be interviewed.
Worse still was the revelation Walsh was using the images he had obtained for more than just sexual gratification.
“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,” a prosecutor said.
“We will allege Sgt Walsh has been leveraging that material against the children to make them amenable to more serious offences.”
There would also, they said, be new charges filed.
“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.”
They alleged he used three fake Instagram accounts in two names: “Man Mountain” and “Jace Edwards”.
Prosecutors further alleged Walsh had not offended alone.
THE ‘PROTEGE’
In December 2021, The Advertiser revealed JACET had been led to Walsh through a civilian named Cameron Robert Bowen.
Mr Bowen had been arrested first and accused of using Instagram to target, stalk, harass and threaten LGBT and gender-fluid teenagers for sex and explicit photos.
Those tactics, JACET alleged in court documents, were used against 50 teenagers around the world and had been taught to Mr Bowen by his mentor – Walsh.
Mr Bowen, 32, of Salisbury, had allegedly used an iPhone and four fake accounts to harass teenagers over a four-year period while posing as a female.
Seeking a plea bargain, Mr Bowen’s counsel had his case postponed five times – in March, the court ran out of patience and listed it for trial.
The scope of the allegations against Mr Bowen served as a preview of what was to come for Walsh.
DEFENCE LAWYER SURPRISED
In April, prosecutors conceded they needed eight more weeks to lock down their final push against Walsh – and identify another 15 potential victims.
JACET was, they revealed, assessing a further 8000 pages of Instagram messages to identify “specific examples” of alleged behaviour.
They returned to court in June and, as Walsh watched by video link, replaced all the materials filed so far with a single file alleging 230 child abuse offences.
Mr Morris was, by his own admission, caught off guard by both the voluminous file and the 88,000 pages of evidence provided to him on a CD.
He suggested he may have to “take up residence” in Mount Gambier – where his client was being held – simply to take instructions.
“We only received this 230-count information yesterday, so it’s inconceivable my client could even consider advice in time to enter a plea today,” he said.
“We had started work on the basis of 45 charges … all that work we’ve done has been wasted.
“We’re seeking an adjournment, which seems fair and reasonable given the prosecution have taken a year to get to this point.”
CONFESSION
On Tuesday, Walsh’s matter was called on two months early so he could admit all of the charges against him.
Mr Morris said his client had provided the court with a handwritten guilty plea and signed his name to every one of the 230 charges.
“I admit all charges on the attached information and understand I will be committed to a superior court for sentence,” Walsh wrote in his plea.
Mr Morris and prosecutors asked the matter not go to the District Court, as is ordinary, and instead remain in the Magistrates Court until September.
“There’s still a significant amount of work to be done in this matter, noting the size of it, before it goes before a judge,” a prosecutor said.
The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, remanded Walsh in custody until September when a date will be set for his District Court hearing.
In a statement, an Australian Defence Force spokesman said it was “aware” of the case against Walsh, referring to him as a “former RAAF member”.
“It would be inappropriate to comment on a case that is before the courts,” he said.
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