Faces of evil: Victorian child sex offenders and their vile crimes
They are offenders who acted on their sick fantasies, perpetrating horrible crimes against innocent children. Here’s how they were busted.
Predatory
Don't miss out on the headlines from Predatory. Followed categories will be added to My News.
They are offenders who, through their terrible deeds, have left permanent scars on their victims and caused them unimaginable trauma.
They are men who committed horrendous sexual crimes against children.
As The Herald Sun reported last December, the number of registered sex offenders will soon reach 10,000, with the register growing by hundreds every year.
Crime statistics released in September 2021 showed the recorded rate of sexual offences against children in Victoria nearly doubled since 2019 after rising steadily since 2011.
Most of those offences related to “non-contact offending”, namely the possession, distribution and transmission of child abuse material online and grooming, Victoria’s Police Deputy Commission Rick Nugent said at the time.
But several offenders have acted on their sick impulses in the real world, perpretating sexual abuse on innocent child victims.
These are some of Victoria’s convicted child sexual offenders and the shocking stories behind how they ended up with a permanent stain against their names.
ADAM ABOUGHATTAS
Disgraced Melbourne banking guru Adam Aboughattas admitted driving a schoolgirl to a Bayside beach where he sexually violated her in his car as people walked by.
Aboughattas was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in May 2022 to a two-year community correction order after pleading guilty to a rolled-up indecent act with a child under 16 charge.
Aboughattas indecently assaulted his victim after telling the then primary schoolgirl he studied podiatry and massage and he needed “help” with an upcoming exam.
He told his victim to close her eyes and “not watch” before placing her feet on his crotch.
Aboughattas unzipped his pants and performed a vile act on the child.
The lewd offending occurred in Cheltenham almost 10 years ago.
The victim recalled her torment when Aboughattas violated her again, this time in his car which was parked on Beach Rd at the time.
Aboughattas had earlier picked up the victim — who was wearing her school uniform — from school and drove her to the beach.
The victim feared she would be hurt if she escaped or yelled for help, the court was told.
Magistrate Ros Porter said Aboughattas, a former Commonwealth Bank home lending specialist, was asked by his CBA manager to resign after his deviant offending was exposed by the Herald Sun.
Aboughattas, a former graphic designer and photographer, was convicted and made a registered sex offender for eight years.
MATTHEW PRICE
Bright man Matthew Price was jailed in September, 2021 for performing sick sexual acts on a teenager.
Price, a 48 year old father of two, was jailed for a minimum of two-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to six charges including sexual penetration with a child under the age of 17 in Shepparton County Court.
The court heard the owner of Digital Living in Williamstown assaulted a teenage girl over several months.
On one occasion he exposed his genitalia to the victim while she helped a friend who was sick.
On another occasion, he exposed his genitalia to the victim before giving her lunch.
Just a few days later, the victim was forced to perform sexual acts on Price when they were alone.
She was sexually assaulted another four times before his arrest.
During his interview, Price said he had provided “an adult’s perspective” to his victim.
Judge Anne Hassan said Price’s behaviour was “controlling and corrupting”.
He will serve a maximum of four years behind bars and was registered as a sex offender for life.
HARRY SMITH
Yarram sex fiend Harry Smith, 20, was jailed in August, 2021, for sexually assaulting an underage schoolgirl.
Smith assaulted his victim at Sale in September 2020 the court was told.
The fiend persisted with his demands for sexual activity before violating the girl near a park.
The prolonged attack left Smith’s underage schoolgirl with injuries.
Smith later apologised to his victim for causing the injuries but not the assault, the court heard.
Smith also attacked two police officers as they attempted to arrest him days after the assault.
Smith was charged but later bailed.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the mother of Smith’s victim said she had taken days off work, and often lays awake at night thinking about all the things she could have done to prevent the incident from happening.
She said her daughter would often come into her bed “crying from nightmares”.
Smith’s barrister submitted the age difference was “modest”.
“He was well aware of her age,” the defence submitted.
“(Smith was) well aware of the wrongness of it too,” Judge Paul Smallwood said.
Smith was assessed for youth justice detention but was found unsuitable.
The fiend was jailed for a maximum 18 months and made a registered sex offender for life.
ROBERT WEBB
Former Gippsland government worker and energy consultant, Robert Webb, 66, was jailed for a minimum of 15 months in July, 2021, after pleading guilty to charges including sexual penetration of a child under 16.
Webb was a travelling “alternative energy” consultant when he met his victim in Victoria in the early 2000s.
The depraved fiend told his victim she was a “witch” and he was a warlock who was into “Wicca”.
Webb, who also pleaded guilty to indecent act with a child under 16, spoke to the child about magic and created a “fantasy world” with her.
The court heard Webb posed as warlock to discuss the “intimate workings” of his victim’s body with her.
It heard Webb concocted a story about a woman who told him to collect the victim’s body fluids, which he later stored in bottles emblazoned with “Elvish” writing.
Webb told the girl the fluids combined with the semen of the first man she had sex with would be a “very powerful medicine”.
The grub also photographed the naked child, telling his victim they were playing a “silly game”.
Webb was charged after the matter was reported to police in September 2017.
The prosecution expressed concerns with Webb’s remorse citing the fiend had not provided a “full explanation” for the offending while also “minimising the situation”.
Judge George Georgiou said Webb’s offending was “just too serious”.
Webb was jailed for a maximum two years and five months and made a registered sex offender for life.
LISTEN TO THE PREDATORY PODCAST
FELONY WILLIAMS
Melton man Felony Williams, 19, avoided a jail sentence in August, 2021 for sexually assaulting a schoolgirl after meeting the victim.
Williams, who was 18 at time of offending, met his 14-year-old victim via Snapchat.
The unemployed Melton man caught a train to Bendigo where he met his victim in February, 2020.
The pair visited a shopping centre where a friend of the victim told Williams the girl was only 14 and it was illegal for them to be in a relationship.
“It was OK as long as the police didn’t find out,” Williams said.
Williams also plied his victim and another girl with drugs, the court was told.
He sexually assaulted his victim at the railway station before catching a train back to Melbourne.
The victim later said she “didn’t know what to do” so “just let it happen”, the court was told.
Williams returned to Bendigo via train just two days later and met his victim again after she took the day off school.
Williams took his victim to the abandoned Gillies pie factory where he forced the child to have sex with him.
The court heard the victim “didn’t want to have sex” but “eventually agreed”.
The words “sex den” were graffitied on the wall where Williams had sex with the child, the court was told.
The court was told the girl said she later received threatening messages from Williams and his sister.
Judge Fiona Todd ordered Williams, who also pleaded guilty to supplying drugs to a child, undertake judicial monitoring and seek treatment and rehabilitation.
Williams was sentenced to a three-year community correction order and made a sex offender for life.
LUKE COUGHLAN
Westmeadows man Luke Peter Joseph Coughlan, 43, was jailed in November, 2021 after pleading guilty to the sexual penetration of a child under 16, grooming a child under 16, production of child pornography, using a carriage service to procure a minor for sexual activity, involving a child in the production of child abuse material, and possession of child abuse material.
Coughlan was living with his mother while he used online chatrooms to groom five teenagers from Victoria, Western Australia, the US and Canada between 2015-2020.
Coughlan asked his victims to call him “daddy” and made them self-harm.
Images of one of his 13-year-old victims showed “Daddy’s Princess”, “I belong to Luke” and other crude words written over her chest.
Coughlan groomed his victims through the chatroom Omegle, which matches strangers based on previously selected shared interests.
In 2010, Coughlan used the chatroom to form an online relationship with a 13-year-old American girl, asking her to livestream acts of BDSM — bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.
The court heard Coughlan took sexual pleasure from her pain.
Coughlan recorded their live video chats and saved them.
In 2013 he flew to Connecticut to meet his victim and filmed himself raping her before taking photos of the naked girl.
Another 13-year-old girl was contacted over Kik, a messaging service, from January 2017 to October 2019, convincing her to send self-harm videos.
Coughlan lured her to a motorhome where he raped her before giving the teen sex toys for her birthday.
The Westmeadows man also terrified a young girl from Western Australia after he stalked her to her home using the Snapchat map features.
A 14-year-old American girl who believed she was talking to a Japanese boy, and a 16-year-old Canadian girl were also convinced to send Coughlan sexual images and videos.
He was arrested after police raided his mother’s Westmeadows home on October 14, 2019.
Police uncovered 828 images and videos from the five identified victims, but another 1100 child abuse images and videos of unidentified young girls were also found.
Coughlan was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.
He will remain on the sex offender register for life.
ANDREW GARNER
Cohuna paedophile Andrew Garner, 57, was given another 12 months in prison in July, 2021, after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two boys more than three decades ago.
Garner sexually abused two boys between 1978 and 1984.
Garner was 14 when the abuse, which lasted six years, started.
The court heard Garner pushed his seven-year-old victim in the bathroom and told him to shut up and locked the door.
He then forced his victim to give him oral sex.
On a separate occasion, the court heard Garner, 17, was waiting at the end of a hallway smiling when he forced him into a bathroom.
He masturbated in front of him before forcing the victim to give him oral sex again.
Garner cornered a 12-year-old boy in his bungalow between 1983-1984 where he sexually abused him.
The younger boy was only seven years old when he was abused twice between 1981-1982.
He abused the younger boy and told him: “Don’t tell anyone because no one will believe a liar.”
His two victims, now 50 and 46, delivered harrowing victim impact statements to the court.
Judge John Smallwood said the humiliation, shame and guilt felt by victims of historical sex abuse meant the crimes committed against them were often not exposed until many years later.
He said he suspected Garner’s plea, which was entered just before his trial, was a “pragmatic plea” but he had to “give him the benefit of the doubt for remorse”.
Judge Smallwood said the now 57-year-old would have been dealt with in the Children’s Court had he been caught during the period of his offending.
“Clearly you’ve reoffended on at least two occasions,” he said.
Judge Smallwood said the latest convictions had delayed Garner’s parole eligibility for nine months.
He gave Garner a three month conviction with a 24 month suspended sentence – making an effective sentence of 12 months in prison.
LES WHITE
Filthy Leongatha paedophile Les White, 76, was jailed in July, 2021, after he was found guilty of committing an indecent act with a child under 16, sexual penetration of a child under 16 and attempted sexual penetration of a child under 16.
White sexually abused the victim, aged between eight and 13, in the mid-2000s.
White forced the victim to kiss him, and on another occasion he touched the girl inappropriately while she was on his shoulders.
The victim asked to be put down but he refused because she wasn’t wearing any shoes.
White also encouraged the victim to kiss and rub his genitalia.
The victim feared she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease after learning about it at school.
After sexually assaulting the girl, White told the victim she couldn’t tell anyone about what he had done otherwise “bad things” would happen.
White also forced an object into the victim’s genitalia.
In a victim impact’s statement, the woman said she felt terrified and powerless.
The woman said she had anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Judge Liz Gaynor said White’s offending was degrading and callous.
“This was classic, predatory, pedophilic behaviour involving the remorseless exploitation of a vulnerable little girl for a period of years,” she said.
“You saw her quite clearly as an object for the satisfaction of your own perverted sexual lusts.”
Judge Gaynor said the victim’s life had been impacted because of White’s “monstrous selfishness”.
White was sentenced to 11 years jail with a non-parole period of eight years and nine months.
He was placed on the sex offender register for life.
For more details about the Predatory podcast, go to predatory.com.au
If you have a story to tell, email us at crimeinvestigations@news.com.au
Originally published as Faces of evil: Victorian child sex offenders and their vile crimes
How I can get your child into my car in less than 60 secs
Scarily, we now live in an era where a new level of stranger danger lurks, writes Madeleine West. See what you can do to protect your child.
Read more
How TV star caught sick pedo on TikTok
After she found out a young girl was being followed on TikTok by a man, Madeleine West discovered something shocking that led her straight to the federal police.
Read more