Leslie James Kyte in court for making child exploitation material

As he sat in a prison cell where he was in custody for sexually abusing a young boy, a convicted child sex predator wrote down his vile fantasies in four notebooks. Warning: Disturbing content

Leslie James Kyte, 70, pleaded guilty to making child exploitation material when he faced Maryborough District Court on Tuesday, August 1.

As he sat in a prison cell where he was in custody for the sexually abuse of a young boy, a convicted child sex predator wrote down his vile fantasies in four notebooks – 57 pages in total.

The discovery of that notebook has landed him back before court.

Leslie James Kyte, 70, pleaded guilty to making child exploitation material when he faced Maryborough District Court on Tuesday, August 1.

District prosecutor Farook Anoozer said while Kyte was in custody, a search uncovered the handwritten stories that described sexual acts by underage boys.

In April 2022, Kyte pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, one count of making child exploitation material, two counts of possessing child exploitation material, one count of distributing child exploitation material, one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and one count of intended indecent treatment of a child under 16, under 12 when he faced Bundaberg District Court.

Leslie James Kyte, 70, pleaded guilty to making child exploitation material when he faced Maryborough District Court on Tuesday, August 1.

That court was told that on October 4, 2016, a woman discovered the chilling letter that “set out the writer’s love for little boys”, offering the child $50 to be the victim of a sexual offence.

The letter was reported to the police, but Kyte, who was in his 60s at the time, could not be found.

Later, it would be revealed he had already sexually assaulted the pre-teen boy by luring him with the offer of driving lessons.

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Instead of a driving lesson, he drove the child to a toilet block and sexually assaulted him before placing a $50 note in his pants and telling him not to tell anyone.

He was sentenced to six years’ prison and was eligible for parole from July 28, 2022, taking into account 601 days spent in pre-sentence custody.

In regard to the current offending, Judge David Kent said it appeared Kyte had written the material for his own benefit as there was no suggestion he had intended to show the stories to anyone else.

He said it did stray into “what George Orwell would describe as the thought police”.

“Because if he had these thoughts without writing them down there would be no offence – but he did write them down,” Mr Kent said.

The court heard the offence had been committed before Kyte had the chance to engage in two sex offender programs, which he had since successfully completed.

An apology written by Kyte was also submitted to the court.

Mr Kent said Kyte had been assaulted while in custody, which was “unacceptable”.

“The idea particularly that someone who is 70 years-of-age can’t be protected from assault is repugnant to our society,” he said.

Kyte had himself been abused as a child and had an offer of accommodation and employment near Gladstone upon his release, Mr Kent said.

Kyte was sentenced to 148 days in prison and ordered to serve two years on probation upon his release.

He was made immediately eligible for parole.