CQ child abusers and their shocking crimes exposed
Sports coaches, grandfathers, stepfathers and strangers - they are among those who have been convicted for the sexual abuse of children. See who faced Central Queensland courts this year for their crimes. WARNING: Graphic content
Rockhampton
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The sexual abuse against children by sports coaches, grandfathers, step fathers and even those they met for the first time were exposed in Rockhampton and Emerald District Courts this year.
Here we reveal 12 sex offenders convicted in the past 12 months for crimes against our most vulnerable.
Ben Douglas James Dingley
A Central Queensland soccer coach and player was stripped of his Blue Card after sending a young girl a lewd video and inappropriate messages.
Ben Douglas James Dingley, 22, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court to one count of distributing a recording without permission and one of indecent treatment of a child via a film.
Crown prosecutor Maryam Yousufzai said the 14-year-old girl told police she felt uncomfortable and “weirded out” by Dingley’s actions.
Read more here: Rockhampton soccer player Ben Dingley in court for indecent treatment
Ronald Prasheel Ruebe
A stranger brazenly targeted a 14-year-old girl at a Queensland shopping centre and started a conversation that would lead to 12-months of depravity. Now, his crimes have caught up with him.
Ronald Prasheel Ruebe, 30, a car service technician, met a vulnerable 14-year-old girl at a shopping centre and convinced her to trade sexualised images for alcohol and cash.
He was sentenced in Rockhampton District Court in November to one count of using electronic communications to procure a child for a sexual act, one of involving a child in the making of child exploitation material, one of indecent treatment of a child (exposure) and one of possessing child exploitation material.
Read here about how many images and videos the girl sent over the internet in a year: Ronald Prasheel Ruebe met a teenage girl at a shopping centre, paid her with alcohol for child
exploitation material
Jordan Pierce Clark
A young man who revelled in the fact he was “f---ing” 14-year-old girls and told them he wanted to get them pregnant has been sentenced to prison for three years.
Over a period of 13.5 months, Jordan Pierce Clark sexually offended against 11 underage girls aged 12 to 15 with none of the sexual acts using protection against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
He even told some of his victims he wanted to get them pregnant and he looked forward to having sex with virgins.
The 22-year-old pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on June 2, 2022, to seven counts of carnal knowledge, five of indecent treatment of children with two of those including photographs and one of exposing genitals.
Read here how he lured his victims: Gracemere man Jordan Pierce Clark guilty of sexual offences against 11 underage girls
Mitchell Tristan Trent Brown
A Central Queensland man contacted at least 10 children aged seven to 15 via social media, and in one disturbing act threatened to expose indecent images of one young girl if she didn’t talk to him.
Mitchell Tristan Trent Brown, who is a reportable convicted sex offender who a psychiatrist says meets the criteria for Pedophilic Disorder, failed to report to authorities that he had access to a mobile phone he used to create accounts on the social media apps, which he also failed to report.
The 22-year-old was on bail when he tried to send an 11-year-old girl a photograph of his genitals.
Brown also took a screenshot of an image one child sent him of the side of her breasts and buttocks, which he then told her he would expose it to others if she did not talk to him.
Read how he communicated with his victims here: Paedophile Mitchell Tristan Trent Brown allegedly sent naked pictures to 10 kids
Read here how Brown “pestered” children online for “nudes”, and was dealt with for offences that led to him becoming a registered sex offender just three months prior to the latest offences.
Michael James Gibbons
A married Central Queensland man, with an “addiction” to adult pornography “kept clicking” until he found child abuse material. Now, a court has heard how his interest played out on social media and in public.
A judge has told that man, who accessed child exploitation material, contacted an underage girl via social media and approached another in public that “teen girls are not interested in him”.
Michael James Gibbons, 25, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on August 18 to one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material (CEM), one of possessing CEM and six breaches of bail.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Barker said police searched Gibbons’ residence on July 16, 2021, and he admitted to police that he had used a search engine to access CEM.
It was his conduct post arrest for those matters that to the judge’s blunt comment.
Read what he did here: Judge tells Michael James Gibbons “It’s creepy.”
Nicholas Lawrence George Collis
A man who filmed himself having sex with a 13-year-old girl he had convinced to travel 480 kilometres to Central Queensland told the child, who believed they were a couple, that she was ugly and needed to eat more.
Nicholas Lawrence George Collis, 23, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on August 23 to one count of making child exploitation material, two of carnal knowledge and one of using electronic communication to procure a child.
He was on probation at the time for drug offences and had a five-page criminal record.
Read more here: Nicholas Lawrence George Collis filmed himself have sex with a teenager in Western Downs
Brett Leroy Richards
A “predator” children’s sports coach has been found guilty of raping and indecently treating five pre-pubescent Central Queensland girls over a six-year period.
Brett Leroy Richards, 62, was found guilty of six counts of rape and 10 indecent treatment of children counts on Monday after a 10-day trial in Rockhampton District Court.
Crown prosecutor Matthew Sutton, who has asked Richards to receive a 10-11 year prison term for his crimes, said Richards’ behaviour was ‘predatory’ and exploited the vulnerability of the victims.
Read how many victims and the details of the offending here: Children’s sports coach Brett Leroy Richards guilty of rape, indecent treatment of five girls
Stepfather
A pre-pubescent girl who told her friend of the indecent sexual acts carried out by her stepfather did what society would hope a child in her situation would do – “she raised the alarm”.
The girl’s stepfather, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty by a jury after a two-day trial in November 2022 in Rockhampton District Court.
He had pleaded not guilty on November 14 to three counts of indecent treatment of a child.
Read what he did to his victim here: Icy pole incident showed stepdad’s sexual interest in pre-pubescent child
Michael Gary Mallick
Michael Gary Mallick, 35, was busted possessing 1660 CEM photographs in one of the INTERPOL Classification System categories and 1181 photographs and videos in another category.
Many of the videos depicted children aged seven to 13 years, 80 involving adult penetration of a child, and videos of children aged three to five with their genitals exposed.
He even filmed himself masturbating to the material.
Read more here: Central Queensland tradie has been busted with almost 3000 child exploitation files
Father
A Central Queensland mother feels she failed to protect her son after his estranged father preyed upon their child and raped him twice when he was only young.
Crown prosecutor Maryam Yousufzai said the child victim was 9-12 years old when his biological father sexually offended against him.
Ms Yousufzai said the defendant shared custody of the victim, which led to the victim spending every second weekend with his father.
“We thought we were doing the right thing by encouraging a relationship between a father and son, but it turns out every single second weekend we were handing our baby over to a monster,” she said.
Read more here: “Encouraging that was one of the worst things we have ever done’: Victim’s mum outlines her guilty feelings
Edward Brian Oakley
A man who drunkenly let himself into a sleeping Central Queensland family’s home and rubbed a 13-year-old girl’s leg told police he had been wandering the streets of the country town when he came across the house, a court heard.
Edward Brian Oakley, 27, went on to tell prison staff, while he was held on remand, that he was “hearing voices”.
Read here what the court heard about what Oakley did and how the victim raised the alarm: “Extremely frightening” for the victim: Stranger enters home in middle of the night
Grandfather
A ‘vulnerable little girl’ has poor body image and fears men after her grandfather molested her inside his caravan while visiting his son. She blames herself and asks why this happened to her.
Crown Prosecutor Ryan Godfrey said the man, who was in his 70s, had visited his son’s family in a mining town in the Isaac region with his caravan in 2015.
The victim was eight years old at the time of the offending and was the man’s granddaughter.
Read here what happened: Grandad with ‘memory issues’ sexually abused pre-pubescent girl
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