Bundaberg foster father faces court for child exploitation offences

When two girls uncovered their foster dad’s sick interest, it not only landed him in court on related charges but also exposed him as the culprit in another creepy unsolved crime.

A Bundaberg foster father, who’d cared for at least 25 children, has been jailed for possessing child exploitation material and taking nude photos of his young foster daughter.

An additional offence was also discovered when his fingerprints confirmed he was the previously unknown culprit who had mailed child exploitation images to police in 2018.

The 53-year-old, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his victim, was found out in November, 2020 after two of his foster children discovered child exploitation images on his computer, along with images of another foster child.

Once aware, the man‘s partner demanded he leave the home and alerted police, who carried out a search.

The Bundaberg District Court heard the man was in possession of 306 unique images out of a total of 597 pictures and that those images were in the most serious Interpol category, being Category 1, and included penetrative acts by adults.

The man had a further 41 unique images out of 84 files that were ranked as Interpol Category 2.

The majority of the children in the images were under the age of 10.

On November 5, 2020, he refused to partake in an interview with police, and on February 7, 2021, police carried out another search of the man‘s home and found he had the same images which he had been found to have previously.

The court heard the man claimed that he had plugged a USB into his computer and that the images had somehow automatically uploaded from the storage device which he claimed to have later destroyed.

Crown prosecutor Carla Ahern said when the man once again refused to be interviewed, his fingerprints were taken, which led to the discovery of another crime.

“He was linked to an offence that was committed on the first of November of 2018,” she said.

“In relation to that offence, police had received a letter from the defendant which contained three photographs of children under the age of 10 in sexualised poses.

“Your Honour, his fingerprints were actually found on that letter …”

The man was issued with a notice to appear in court.

Defence barrister Simone Bain said her client told her that about 15 years ago he suspected he may have had depression.

“He describes, in his words, being disgusted in himself for taking photos of his daughter,” she said.

The court heard the man had suffered medical issues as a result of alcoholism.

Judge Nathan Jarro condemned the man’s actions.

“These offences are offences for which unless extreme circumstances are shown, an actual term of imprisonment is required,” he said, adding that no such circumstances existed in this case.

“You were supposed to protect her, not exploit her.”

The man pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material, relating to the images posted to the police, two counts of possessing child exploitation material relating to the hundreds of images found on his computer on two occasions, and the charge of indecent treatment of a child under 16 under care relating to the five nude images of his foster daughter.

He received a head sentence of 18 months, suspended after six, with an operational period of two years and two years’ probation.