REVEALED: The Greater Brisbane child sexual offenders who have faced court in recent months

A religious youth group leader, a father and a 20-something who lied about being a teenager are among those who have recently fronted court for their shocking sexual crimes against children. SEE THE LIST. Warning: Disturbing content

Maddie Manwaring

@maddiemanwaring

7 min read

March 23, 2022 - 6:08PM

Quest Newspapers

Local

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A religious youth group leader, a father and a 20-something who lied about being a teenager are among the people who have faced court recently for committing shocking sexual crimes against children.

The below is a list of people from Brisbane and surrounding regions who have faced court in the past few months for a variety of child sexual offences, including rape, indecent treatment, and maintaining a relationship with a child.

John Joseph Power

John Joseph Power leaving court after an earlier mention. Picture: Tara Croser.

Four young girls were left traumatised after Brisbane man John Joseph Power exploited their young ages and financial vulnerability for his own sexual gratification.

While on a trip to the Philippines in 2019, Power groomed and committed “depraved” sexual offences against teenage girls he had met online.

Power, 57, was jailed in January after pleading guilty to several charges, the most serious being one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child outside Australia, as well as engaging in sexual activity with a child outside Australia and grooming a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia.

For four weeks before leaving Australia, Power used WhatsApp to groom a 16-year-old girl in the Philippines and arranged to meet her when he arrived in the country in August 2019, the Brisbane Supreme Court heard.

The girl was “significantly corrupted” by Power to the point that she “recruited” other young girls including her cousin to talk to and meet with Power.

Power would have sexually explicit conversations with the girls online and would request “pornographic material” from them, the court heard.

He invited the 16-year-old and two girls aged 13 and 14 to an apartment in the Philippines to engage in sexual activities several times over four weeks and took photos and videos of them in various positions, some sexual and some depicting him groping or hugging the girls.

The full extent of the sexual activity between Power and the three teenagers was unknown but did not involve sexual intercourse.

The 16-year-old girl also connected him with a 10-year-old girl, and Power began grooming her after buying her a mobile phone to communicate with him.

Upon arrival back in Australia he was intercepted and 115 photos and videos of the children were found on his devices.

Power’s defence barrister said the man had been an alcoholic at the time of the offending, drinking up to two litres of brandy a day while in the Philippines.

Power was given a head sentence of eight years with a non-parole period of four years and one day in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.

Brayden Peter Dickens

Brisbane youth group leader Brayden Peter Dickens was cut off from his church community after indecently treating a 14-year-old girl.

The Forest Lake man and former youth group leader at Forest Lake Baptist Church, pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16 in the Brisbane District Court last November.

The court heard the offending occurred on a date between November 30, 2019 and February 1, 2020, when the victim was aged 14 or 15.

While the exact nature of Dickens’ relationship to his victim cannot be revealed, she was not in the church youth group he led.

The first indecent treatment occurred when Dickens grabbed the victim on the bottom as she was walking with him and another friend, and she “twisted away” and moved closer to her friend to avoid Dickens.

Later, Dickens “swung his leg” over the top of hers as she sat beside him and attempted to slide his hand up her thigh towards her crotch region.

The court heard his victim told Dickens to “stop” and that she had a boyfriend.

The final indecent treatment occurred a short time later when Dickens rubbed her vagina outside her shorts.

The court heard Dickens was cut out from his church community, in which he was particularly involved, as a musician, youth group leader and participant in Bible studies.

Judge Paul Smith placed Dickens on two years’ probation.

No conviction was recorded.

Keiran Lachlan Graham

Moreton Bay man Keiran Lachlan Graham was jailed last year for raping and indecently treating a 15-year-old girl

Graham, then-19, met the girl on Instagram and lied about his age, telling her he was 16.

About a year after first contacting her, Graham met her at a Mount Ommaney shopping centre and they caught a bus to his former Enoggera home on or about August 2, 2019.

Graham confessed to actually being 19 and the girl repeatedly told him she did not want to have sex.

They watched a movie together and Graham told her “age doesn’t matter”.

The girl again said she did not want have sex but Graham removed his penis from his shorts and attempted to take off the girl’s shorts, the court heard.

Later, while the girl was “half asleep” Graham rolled onto her stomach and raped her for about 15 to 20 minutes while she “pretended to be asleep.”

After leaving his home the girl made an immediate police report.

In November 2021 Graham pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to two counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16 and one count of rape.

Judge Michael Byrne QC sentenced Graham to four years and a half years’ jail, and set his parole eligibility at March 5, 2022.

Levi James Wilshire

Lockyer Valley man Levi James Wilshire raped a 12-year-old girl three times in two days while also indecently treating her, a court heard in October last year.

The Gatton man had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16, and was sentenced in Ipswich District Court.

The court heard the first two rapes were committed on April 2, 2020, while the third rape and the indecent treatment occurred two days later, all four occurring at Gatton.

The first group of offending involved orally and vaginally raping the girl, telling her, “You have a sexy body”, the court heard.

The second group involved Wilshire shining a torch on his penis in front of the girl and retracting his foreskin repeatedly, telling her, “This is what a d--k looks like in the daytime”.

He then vaginally raped her.

Crown prosecutor Hamish McIntyre told the court the girl told him to stop and tried to push him off her.

Defence counsel Stephen Kissick told the court his client was homeless at the time of offending and was addicted to cannabis with sporadic methamphetamine use.

He described Wilshire’s offending as “thoughtless and impulsive” and noted this was the first time he had been in jail.

Judge Orazio Rinaudo sentenced Wilshire to eight years’ jail, with parole-eligibility set at June 18, 2023.

The Springwood man, in his 30s, cannot be identified to protect the victim's identity.

A Springwood alcoholic with a terrible history of violence committed a heinous crime against his daughter, raping her in his own bed while his partner slept beside them.

The Springwood man, who is aged in his thirties and cannot be identified to protect the identity of his daughter, who was less than 10 years old at the time of her violation, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District last November Court to rape.

The court heard the offence happened sometime in 2018, and that after climbing into bed with her father and his partner, the vulnerable girl was digitally raped.

The offending came to light in 2020 after a teacher at the girl’s school overheard her making disclosures about the incident to her friends.

The man was originally charged with a further count of rape and three of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 12, but these were discontinued by the Crown.

Defence counsel Bruce Mumford told the court his client’s “primary difficulty is alcohol and the consequences that follow from his serious abuse of alcohol”.

The man was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility set at the one-third mark, in November 2022.

Dalby man, 50s

A former Queensland Police officer who was serving at the time of his offending was jailed last year for child sexual offences committed over 15 years, which involved him molesting and filming his daughters and stepdaughters.

The Dalby man, aged in his early fifties, cannot be named to protect the identity of his four victims, who were aged between four and 13 at the time of offending.

The man pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court in October to 11 offences, including making and possessing child exploitation material (CEM), and multiple counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 12 who was a lineal descendant.

In 2001–02, the man repeatedly photographed his daughter, who was yet to start primary school, bathing, focusing on her crotch area, and also took a variety of other pictures of her in “different types of undress”.

In 2011–12, the man took a series of videos and photographs of three of his stepchildren, several of which depicted their vaginas, including when they were sleeping.

In March 2012, he touched one of the girl’s vaginas while photographing her.

One of the indecent treatments was committed while he thought his stepdaughter was asleep, however she was lying couch frozen in terror as the indecent treatment took place.

Judge Ian Dearden sentenced the man to four years’ imprisonment, suspended for an operational period of five years after he had served 16 months behind bars.

Indooroopilly man, 30s

A Brisbane region man, 33, repeatedly raped his stepdaughter, indecently touching her and taking photos of her naked body between 2017 and 2020.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to maintaining a sexual relationship with a child at Indooroopilly between 2017 and 2020, when the girl, now 15, was aged 11 to 13.

He also pleaded guilty to four counts of rape, indecent treatment of a child under 12 under his care, and possessing and involving a child in making child exploitation material.

The sexual abuse occurred during a time when the mother was having frequent seizures and was bedridden or occasionally hospitalised and the stepfather was running the household.

The court heard the man raped or sexually touched the girl 50 times.

Judge Orazio Rinaudo took into account the man’s pleas of guilty, remorse, lack of criminal history and the fact that he had been twice assaulted in prison and had been in protective custody.

He sentenced the man to nine years’ jail with parole eligibility on October 26, 2024, for maintaining the sexual relationship and lesser concurrent jail terms for the other offences.

He declared 678 days he had spent in custody to be time served on the sentence.