Matthew James McDonald repeatedly snaps creepy photos of kids at Bunnings, Kmart

A 27-year-old man was chased down in a “citizen's arrest” after cornering a young girl in the toy section of a Queensland Kmart. Now, details of this crime and his horrific history can be revealed.

A serial predator, who took obscene photographs of children’s private parts, while they shopped with their families at major chain stores has been jailed.

Mackay District Court heard this week the 27-year-old Matthew James McDonald had repeatedly targeted children in public spaces, often just metres from their parents.

On August 23, 2021, he was with a supervisor per his bail agreement and yet still found the opportunity to corner an 8-year-old girl in the toy section of a Kmart.

Crown prosecutor Michelle Parfitt said McDonald had waited until “she was a short distance away from her father” before he called the child to him.

“He pulled down her pants and underwear with one hand and then took two photographs on his phone of the complainant’s (genitalia)”, she said.

“The child ran back to her father upset.”

Matthew James McDonald, pictured when he was 23.

The girl’s father then chased McDonald down before being assisted by a bystander in what Judge Gregory Lynham called “a citizen’s arrest”.

Ms Parfitt said McDonald confessed his offending to police once they arrived to arrest him.

“(He) admitted to taking these photos and videos for the purposes of his sexual gratification”, she said.

While Ms Parfitt conceded McDonald’s crimes hadn’t extended into groping the children, she said his continued determination to “predatorily photograph them in public” after his release from jail was a serious factor.

McDonald’s criminal history extends back to 2018, when he put recording devices in changing rooms at Canelands Central shopping centre in Mackay.

He had been released for similar offences just under two months earlier to the Kmart incident on June 26.

The court heard McDonald had been jailed for offending at North Mackay Bunnings on September 5, 2020.

As child exploitation charges were often banned from phones and other devices, McDonald took his grandfather’s phone from the glovebox of the car in which they had travelled to Bunnings.

“The defendant wandered around the store and proceeded to take photographs of children on his grandfather’s phone”, Ms Parfitt said.

“(He) was pretending to take photographs of the products in the aisles.”

McDonald followed at least five different children, each between the ages of 8 and 13, taking photos of them sitting, standing, or bending over.

Several parents and siblings of these children noticed McDonald’s vile behaviour, with one mother calling him a “scumbag”.

Ms Parfitt said one eight-year-old girl had 11 photos and a 10-second video taken underneath her skirt.

“At one stage the child was alerted to the defendant (because) of the phone touching her leg”, she said.

“Her father confronted the defendant and his grandfather in the carpark.”

The court heard the father sent a photo of the car’s number plate to police, leading to a raid at McDonald’s home that night where he was arrested.

McDonald remained in custody until his sentence for a period of 407 days.

In total, his stints in prison had racked up 705 days which Judge Lynham allowed as time served on his sentence.

Defence barrister Matt Heelan said, while McDonald was eligible for immediate release due to the 705 days served, this would turn him out into crisis accommodation alongside other families and their children.

Judge Lynham said “that could be a disaster” and agreed to Mr Heelan’s proposal that the first two weeks of McDonald’s parole be served in prison until appropriate accommodation could be found.

For charges of possessing and making child exploitation material, McDonald received a head sentence of two years and nine months with his parole release date pushed back 14 days to October 18.