Jacob Taverner: Ex-ship’s captain jailed for vile child porn
A Brisbane man with a 30-year history in the maritime industry, including captaining ships, has been jailed for vile child porn offences.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Brisbane predator posed as a teenager on Instagram to lure vulnerable young girls into engaging in disgusting, sexualised conversations online and on one occasion to send a bikini photo, a court has heard.
Chapel Hill man Jacob Taverner, 57, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday to 24 offences.
They included 19 counts of using a mobile phone to indecently communicate with children under the age of 16, two counts of possessing child exploitation material (CEM), and one count each of using a mobile phone to solicit and access.
The court heard Taverner, formerly a respected ship’s captain with a 30-year career in the maritime industry, also shared a variety of CEM among an online “group” of other predators, and possessed the vile material.
Commonwealth prosecutor Gabriel Perry told the court Taverner’s offending fell under three heads.
Firstly, Taverner shared a variety of CEM via website Bandcamp, making the material available to nine offenders on three different occasions.
“The private group did not simply trade with each other,” Mr Perry said.
“There was a discussion of the videos and alerting each other when online shows became available.”
Secondly, Taverner acquired a variety of CEM.
“The evidence suggests more than fleeting engagement,” Mr Perry said.
This includes using a variety of platforms and sites to access and download the material over a period of seven months, and “consciously storing” them on phones and USBs.
Finally and most egregiously, Mr Perry said, Taverner adopted the persona of a teenage boy on Instagram to engage in highly sexualised conversations with female children.
“Some of these girls were very young, it would have been apparent to the defendant he was engaging with very young children,” Mr Perry said.
He cited one conversation, where Taverner told a young girl she “got him hard”, to which she replied, “gross”, as an example of the depraved and prurient nature of the conversations.
The court heard Taverner sent messages of this nature to 20 girls aged between 11–15.
Taverner has been remanded in pre-sentence custody for 56 days, the court heard.
Defence counsel Rachael Taylor told the court her client lived a “blame free” life prior to the accident in 2015, which saw Taverner woken from his sleep mid-voyage to the sound of his ship crashing into an oil tanker while under the command of his chief officer.
This commenced a spiral into alcohol abuse and depression, which saw Taverner seek out the vile material, Ms Taylor said.
She told the court Taverner had been married for 24 years and had two adult sons with his wife, who remained supportive of him.
“His wife and brother are outside court in support but he has asked them not to attend out of shame,” Ms Taylor said.
She noted her client sought immediate psychological treatment after he was charged and had been assessed as a “very low risk of reoffending”.
Justice Susan Brown sentenced to Taverner to three years and four months’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility set at September 12 next year.
Upon his release he will be subject to a variety of suspended sentences.
SEQ housing shake-up as new property giant rises
A property giant is emerging after its latest takeover was approved, paving the way for the conglomerate to become the largest housing developer in southeast Queensland.
Man sought psych help in hours before deadly hammer attack on own mum
A mentally ill man who killed his mother in a violent attack in her own home will be eligible for parole in 2.5 years, a court hearing he was preoccupied with ‘end of days perceptions’.