2025 List: Regional Qld child predators, creeps, sex offenders, and groomers named and shamed
Here’s a list of men sentenced in Toowoomba for vile crimes committed against the community’s most vulnerable, including child sex crimes, grooming, and making child exploitation material.
Offenders who commit crimes against the community’s most vulnerable, children, pass through the Toowoomba courts on a daily basis.
Those who sexually abuse children, who are more often than not men, usually can’t be named because their victims are related to them, thus putting the identification of the child at risk.
However, a recent change to laws in Queensland means that men and women who were once the victims of sexual abuse have the right and power to tell their stories of survival - unless they are under the age of 18.
Below is a list of regional Queensland men who can be named, who were sentenced before the Toowoomba courts in 2025:
EGREGIOUS CHILD SEX CRIMES
Robert Zeljezic
Toowoomba man Robert Zeljezic was jailed for six months in September after he pleaded guilty to committing abhorrent child sex crimes against a primary school-aged girl.
In May, the former courier driver, painter, and transport manager pleaded guilty to six charges, which included rape, indecent treatment, and repeated sexual conduct with a child.
The Toowoomba District Court heard Zeljezic sexually abused his stepdaughter from the age of seven to 12.
The court also heard police were aware of the abuse in 2006, but rather than charge Zeljezic, the case was deferred the case to the Department of Child Safety, who removed him from the home and organised 27 sessions with a psychologist.
Despite Zeljezic admitting to sexually abusing and being sexually attracted to his stepdaughter, he returned to the family home two years later.
Zeljezic was officially charged with the child sex crimes in 2021, after his stepdaughter asked police to reopen the case in 2020.
When he was sentenced in 2025, the court heard some of the mitigating factors of his sentence were his lack of criminal history and that he was deemed a low-risk reoffender.
Judge Dennis Lynch KC sentenced Zeljezic to a four-year jail term, to be suspended for five years after serving six months.
He will be released from jail in early 2026.
Steven Lappin
Toowoomba man Steven Lappin was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three young girls, the youngest of whom was three years old.
In October, the 47-year-old single man pleaded guilty to 10 child sex offences, which included to two charges of having repeated sexual contact with children and eight charges of indecent treatment of a child.
Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC told the Toowoomba District Court that the submissions from the Crown and Lappin’s legal team, that he should serve one third of an eight-year sentence, were too low.
Judge Devereaux said he should serve at least three years before being eligible for parole.
One of the mitigating factors of Lappin’s sentence was the abuse he was subjected to as a child.
Lappin was sentenced to serve at least three years of an eight-year jail term.
Lappin can apply for parole in October 2028.
Gregory Mark Nowland
South West Queensland man Gregory Mark Nowland was jailed for one year for child sex crimes he committed against a primary school-aged girl.
Following a two-day trial before the Toowoomba District Court in May, Nowland was found guilty by a jury of two counts of the indecent treatment of a child under the age of 12.
The court heard the 61-year-old machine operator touched the little girl’s genitalia and tried to make her touch his penis.
Judge Craig Chowdhury sentenced the Downlands College alumnus to a two-year jail term and a two-year probation order.
Nowland is set to be released from jail in May 2026.
Full story here.
Graham Bradford
Hours before justice was to be handed down against Toowoomba child sex offender who preyed on young boys, Graham Bradford, he was found dead in his home.
On October 24, the 72-year-old retiree was scheduled to plead guilty to 29 child sex offences before the Toowoomba District Court on Friday, October 24.
The 22 charges he was to be sentenced for included the indecent treatment of a child under 16, three charges of repeated sexual conduct with a child, two counts of attempted penile intercourse with a child under 16, penile intercourse with a child under 16, and the indecent treatment of a child under 12.
Having read the victim impact statements the night prior to the sentence, Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC said the news was terrible for Bradford, but also for the victims “who hoped for closure”.
ONLINE CREEPS, CHILD EXPLOITATION MATERIAL
Dakota Napier
Toowoomba man Dakota James Napier was served 539 days in jail for a litany of disgusting and abhorrent crimes he committed involving children.
At Toowoomba District Court on Monday, August 26, Napier pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including making child exploitation material, accessing and possessing hundreds of CEM images and videos, sharing CEM, and recording women and a child in breach of their privacy.
The court heard the 29-year-old, who was working as an NDIS support worker, secretly recorded the genital region of a primary school-aged girl while covertly recording up her dress.
Over five years, Napier shared child exploitation with creeps online, some of which he made, along with sick fantasies he wrote about degrading and sexually assaulting young girls.
When police searched his devices, they found 519 category one images and more than 700 ‘other’ CEM images on his devices, which included rape of infants, toddlers, children, and young teens.
The court heard Napier’s “pedophilic tendencies” may have been related to his longstanding pornographic addiction.
Judge Craig Chowdhury sentenced Napier to a three-year jail term, a $2000 recognisance release order to be of good behaviour, a two-year probation order, and a four-year suspended jail term to hang over his head.
As the 539 days he served in custody were declared time served, Napier has since been released under the supervision of a probation officer for two years.
Scott Boyd
Darling Downs pedophile Scott William James Boyd will spend two years behind bars for his depraved and predatory online crimes, where he groomed children and shared exploitation material.
In March, the Toowoomba District Court heard the 54-year-old groomed an unknown number of kids through Snapchat over a year-and-a-half period, during which he also wrote abhorrent child abuse material and encouraged adults to abuse children.
Boyd pleaded guilty to 98 child sex offences, which were largely using the internet to procure a child under 16 and 12, and grooming a child under the age of 16, and a handful of charges related to making child abuse material, and possessing child abuse material.
At the time, the former Riverina Stockfeeds yardman was on a probation order for similar crimes.
The most serious of his latest offences related to the online abuse of a 12-year-old South Australian girl, whom he told “you belong to me now”.
The court heard the married man groomed the girl and told her to carry out sexual acts on camera, including sodomy.
He also told the girl he would drive to SA to have sex with her and that she would be the “third youngest” child he’d been with, alleging the youngest was 10.
Judge Benedict Power KC sentenced Boyd to a six-year jail term, with a requirement to serve two years before being eligible to apply for parole.
The 531 days Boyd spent in custody were declared as time served.
His release will be up to the parole board.
Shane Matheson-Bell
Southern Downs man, Shane David Matheson-Bell, was released from prison in June after spending more than two years on remand for a raft of child sex offences.
At the Toowoomba District Court in June, Matheson-Bell pleaded guilty to abducting a child and two charges of possessing graphic child abuse material.
The 38-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges after a trial where he was acquitted of indecently dealing with a 12-year-old boy.
The court heard police uncovered Matheson-Bell’s online depravity when they searched his phone following his arrest for abducting a child under the age of 16.
There was no suggestion that Matheson-Bell was sexually interested in the teenager.
On his phone, investigators found 15 child exploitation files, including a video of a young boy being raped.
At the time of the offences, Matheson-Bell was on bail for possessing child exploitation material.
Judge Dennis Lynch KS sentenced Matheson-Bell to serve 811 days in jail, which was declared as time served, and he was released from custody.
MEN “COURTING” KIDS
Mark Gallman
Brisbane man Mark Gallman walked free from court after pleading guilty to grooming a Toowoomba girl who was under the age of 15.
The 24-year-old fronted the Toowoomba District Court in June and pleaded guilty to one count of grooming and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 15.
The court heard Gallman, who was a ‘highly religious man’, indecently dealt with the girl, who was 10 years his junior, on two occasions, which included digital penetration.
Judge Dennis Lynch KC sentenced Gallman on the basis that he believed Gallman had a low risk of reoffending and didn’t have a sexual interest in children.
Having deemed there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ preventing Gallman from serving time, Judge Lynch sentenced him to an 18-month jail term, suspended for two years.
Joseph Lewis
After serving 572 days on remand, Oakey man Joseph Micheal Lewis was released from jail in October when he pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a child.
In October, the 31-year-old entered a plea before the Toowoomba District Court while the jury on his rape and indecent treatment trial struggled to come to an agreement on all counts.
The court heard Lewis engaged in a sexual act with a 13-year-old girl after meeting her just hours prior outside Grand Central Shopping Centre in Toowoomba.
Lewis, who said he thought the girl was 16, had also bought the girl alcohol.
Judge Vicki Loury KC told the court it was “perfectly apparent” that the girl was 13, just by listening and looking at her.
Ms Loury said Lewis had spent more time in custody than usual for a charge of unlawful sex with a child, and sentenced him to a 572-day jail term, declared as time served.
NO CONVICTION RECORDED
Connor Golding
Ipswich man Connor Mark Golding walked free from court after pleading guilty to taking advantage of a young teen he’d met online.
In August, the Toowoomba District Court heard the 21-year-old man defiled the girl in a change room after arranging to meet the 15-year-old at a Toowoomba shopping centre ‘for a date’.
Later that day at Golding’s home, the court was told he told the girl to perform oral sex on him, after which he took a degrading picture of her.
The former Toowoomba man pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent treatment and one count of using the internet to procure a child under the age of 16.
Mitigating features of the sentences included his early plea, he was working full-time, building a family, and a doctor’s report and clinical opinion.
Judge Craig Chowdhury deemed Golding’s case had “exceptional circumstances” preventing him from serving the mandatory time associated with the child sex offences, he was sentenced to a 12-month probation order.
No convictions were recorded.
Full story here.
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Originally published as 2025 List: Regional Qld child predators, creeps, sex offenders, and groomers named and shamed
