Alex Waldron pleads guilty to possessing and soliciting child abuse material at Lismore court

A paedophile told a Lismore court his “moral compass” had shifted, but not by enough to delete his hoard of dark web child abuse material. Read what happened in court.

Alex Waldron, 28, pleaded guilty at Lismore District Court on Monday October 31 to three counts of possessing child abuse material, and two counts of soliciting child abuse material.

A paedophile claimed his “moral compass had shifted” a year before his arrest, but cross-examination revealed he had been seeking child abuse material on the dark web and in paedophile chat rooms six months before he was apprehended.

Alex Waldron, 28, pleaded guilty at Lismore District Court on Monday October 31 to three counts of possessing child abuse material, and two counts of soliciting child abuse material.

The Smiths Creek man was busted with child abuse material on his computer, and upon further investigation of his electronic devices, police found evidence of Waldron actively soliciting for child abuse material online, the court heard.

Police found a conversation where Waldron had written in an online chat room that he was a “law abiding paedophile”, meaning he did not act on his sexual urges towards children.

Alex Waldron, 28, pleaded guilty at Lismore District Court on Monday October 31 to three counts of possessing child abuse material, and two counts of soliciting child abuse material.

The court heard Waldron asked the chat group: “Anyone got any nice pre-teen stuff?”.

A response he received from a user was, “what’s your type”, to which Waldron replied: “Girls around 5 to 10”.

When Waldron took the stand for cross-examination, he told the court his “moral compass starting (sic) pointing in a different direction” about a year before police found his child porn stash and charged him.

Speaking through tears, Waldron said the impetus for this realisation was the discovery that a friend’s sister was self-harming due to trauma from child sexual abuse, and learning that made him feel “disgusted” with himself for being implicit in the exploitation of children.

But Judge Jeffery McLennan pointed out that Waldron had been accessing child abuse material for at least 10 years, and asked the accused why he had not come to that moral realisation at any time in that decade.

“It didn’t occur to you in that 10 years that the (child abuse material) market existed because of people like you?” Judge McLennan said.

“So why if your moral compass had shifted, was there any of this material on any of your devices?”

Waldron said he was confident he was able to resist temptation to collect more child abuse material, but had not reached the point to delete what he already had.

“So you were content to enjoy what you already had?” Judge McLennan asked.

During cross-examination, the court heard Waldron had been actively soliciting child abuse material six months before his arrest.

Judge McLennan asked why Waldron had spent time in paedophilic chat rooms in the year after he had said he was morally reformed.

Waldron said it was a place where if he found himself having urges to look at child abuse material he could get support from others who understood.

Waldron told the court he was trying to weed out paedophiles with child porn, to get them banned from group chats.

However, Waldron also admitted to hanging out in “dark web” message boards where he would randomly happen across child abuse material posted by others.

Prior to being arrested, Waldron had seen a psychiatrist, but did not speak to the professional about his sexual interest in young girls because he was scared of the legal consequences of possessing child abuse material, the court heard.

Waldron has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and pedophilic disorder, the court heard.

The matter was adjourned to December 13 for sentencing at Lismore District Court.

Waldron will remain on bail in the interim, with Judge McLennan observing: “I haven’t got a slightest doubt that he (will) be a target in prison.”

But Judge McLennan told Waldron: “You shouldn’t assume that I have made (a) decision about your future one way or the other.”