NAMED: Stanthorpe sex offenders
Here’s a list of the people convicted over past years for abhorrent crimes against children.
Stanthorpe
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FROM a drug trafficker who preyed on underage girls to a serial predator who paid for pictures of young girls, the Granite Belt has seen a number of horrific crimes committed each year.
Here are the Granite Belt sex offenders who have been convicted over the past four years.
NAMED: DRUG TRAFFICKER OFFERED UNDERAGE GIRLS DRUGS FOR SEX
Drug trafficker Josepha Scopelliti-Seaton preyed on underage girls, offering them drugs and money for sex on a number of occasions.
The 23-year-old sent three 14-year-old girls hundreds of messages coaxing them to have sex with him.
He also asked one of them to help him secure more customers to sell drugs.
The Toowoomba Supreme Court heard while most of the girls denied Scopelliti-Seaton's advances, he found one girl drunk at a party and continued to supply her with alcohol before having sex with her.
The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to a number of drug trafficking and sexual assault charges earlier this year.
He was sentenced to eight years' jail and is eligible for parole from November 1.
RAPIST JAILED FOR NINE YEARS FOR SHOCKING BACKPACKER ATTACK
A man who drugged and raped a German backpacker showed little remorse when sentenced to nearly a decade in prison, the Brisbane District Court heard.
Peter John Van de Wetering spent months planning the attack the court heard, including buying a wig, fake beard and fake moustache and finding a remote location.
The 47-year-old advertised a job for a nanny to lure the 19-year-old woman to Cottonvale.
In 2016, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape, attempted rape, deprivation of liberty, sexual assault, common assault, stealing, administering a stupefying drug and attempting to stupefy.
Van de Wetering tied her hands with cable ties and blindfolded her before he drove her to shearers' quarters and sexually assaulted her.
He was sentenced to nine years in jail and declared a serious violent offender.
He has been behind bars since October 2014.
CHURCH ELDERS COVERED UP RAPE OF YOUNG GIRL
For more than a decade, a Southern Downs church irgnored the rape of a young girl by one of their parishioners.
Brain David Harvey was jailed for eight months in 2016 for digitally raping the young girl, a fellow parishioner of a Jehovah's Witness church.
The then 47-year-old, molested the girl on three occasions and raped her once.
The court heard, the girl reported the abuse to the church in 2002 and they "made their own inquiries".
As a result, Harvey was "ostracised" from the church for three years but the matter was not reported to police.
In 2015 the victim, now an adult, made a formal complaint to police.
Harvey was formally charged in 2015 with three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 and one of rape, all of which he pleaded guilty to.
He was sentenced to two and a half years' jail, which was suspended after he served eight months.
VILE STASH: SERIAL PREDATOR PAID FOR PHOTOS OF YOUNG GIRLS
An Applethorpe man, with prior rape and child sex offence convictions, was sentenced to more time behind bars after paying women to send him naked photos of girls aged as young as 10.
Colin Broadwith was found with a stash of child porn, containing graphic videos and photos of girls, in his Applethorpe home in December 2017.
The 64-year-old fronted Warwick District Court last year, where he pleaded guilty to multiple offences including three counts of using a carriage service to solicit child exploitation material, two counts of possessing the material and one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material.
The court heard Broadwith had a serious criminal history across Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
He was sentenced to four years' jail and will be eligible to apply for parole after two years.
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