John Edwards James Wright pleads guilty in Mackay court to child sex abuse crimes

A vile child abuser manipulated a little girl and her family so he could take explicit photos of her, but claims he was not aroused by the images.

A vile child abuser who manipulated a little girl and her family so he could take explicit photos of her told police “it just happened” and the three year old had “led him on”.

John Edwards James Wright met the child, who was aged three to five over the offending, at a lego hobby event in 2018.

The 63 year old then committed the revolting crimes at her Mackay region home that involved making the child touch herself as he took photos and videos of her genitalia.

Mackay District Court heard he made comments like “yeah beautiful” as he zoomed his camera in.

In 2020, the girl told her mother Wright had touched her and taken photos of her on his phone and camera and asked her to be his girlfriend.

Police found numerous images and videos on his camera and phone.

Wright pleaded guilty to 10 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12, nine of which involved videos and images and one of which involved actual touching.

Crown prosecutor Julie Aylward said when police spoke to Wright he said “it just happened”, that he’d “been lonely” and he denied the images aroused him.

“He said that she seemed OK with it and he didn’t mean anything by it,” Ms Aylward said.

“He said he didn’t want to blame the (victim) but she sort of led him on.”

“Sorry, a three to five year old?” Judge Julie Dick asked, labelling the comments as an “extremely disturbing” lack of insight.

The court heard the offending had had a terrible impact on the whole family and the child had now been acting out.

“His lack of remorse and insight … is quite breathtaking,” Ms Aylward said, adding he had embarked on a “manipulative course of conduct”.

Defence barrister Scott McLennan said his client was “substantially illiterate and seemingly on the borderline intelligence range”.

The court heard Wright had been described as being “simple”, which Judge Dick accepted given his answers to police.

Family members were in court in support.

Judge Dick said she would reduce the jail term to acknowledge Wright had pleaded guilty, meaning the victim child did not have to give evidence, which she said was “excruciating” to watch.

Wright was jailed for two years wholly suspended after six months.

Convictions are recorded and he will be a reportable child sex abuse offender.