Darren Glen Ebelt busted describing child sex abuse fantasies online

From behind a screen, a convicted paedophile messaged a mother and her child about the abhorrent things he wanted to do to them. Now his repeat offending is out in the open. *Distressing

Darren Glen Ebelt, 31, is a convicted paedophile who was busted reoffending months after release from prison for the same type of offending.

A man jailed for targeting underage strangers online and writing about his sexual fantasies involving a pre-pubescent child and their mother has been caught doing the same thing again.

Darren Glen Ebelt, 31, was initially busted having “highly sexualised conversations with a number of people under the age of 15, including an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl” in a chat and online forum for about a month, Crown Prosecutor Ryan Godfrey told Rockhampton District Court this month.

He was sentenced early last year to a two-year prison term, suspended after serving four months.

The clinically diagnosed paedophile was then subjected to reporting conditions under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2004, which was how his latest crimes were detected.

Mr Godfrey said police attended Ebelt’s home on November 9, 2022, and when inspecting his devices, they discovered he didn’t have his email app downloaded on his phone which Ebelt told them wasn’t there for security reasons.

He said once police saw his email account, they discovered he had been emailing an American woman, 27, and her daughter, 12, and had sexualised conversations in the Google Chat app with both between September 21 and November 8, “professing his desire to engage (both), sometimes at the same time, sometimes just (the child), in high level sexual acts”.

Mr Godfrey said the fantasies escalated over time including Ebelt saying he wanted to have babies with the child.

He said throughout the conversation period, both mother and child frequently asked Ebelt for money, purchase data for them, gift cards and bitcoin.

Ebelt also had PlayStation and YouTube accounts he created years ago but failed to report to authorities as required under legislation.

Judge Jeff Clarke said Ebelt wanted to carry out “abhorrent sexual abuse” with a 12-year-old.

“The level of sexual perversion is extreme in this case,” he said.

Ebelt pleaded guilty to one count using electronic communication with intent to procure a child under 16 for a sexual act, two of failing to comply with reporting conditions and one of failing to notify information as required by the Child Protection Act.

Judge Clarke ordered Ebelt finish serving the suspended sentence he received last year, plus serve a further 12 months on top of that for the fresh offences.

Ebelt will be eligible for parole on April 4, 2024.