Mum speaks out after Sean Lachlan Martin jailed for online child sexual offending

By the time a NSW mum realised her only child was under the spell of a monster lurking behind a screen in Qld, it was too late. Now, she’s speaking out in the hope other parents don’t live her waking nightmare.

Sean Lachlan Martin (pictured with his lawyer) pleaded guilty to a 14-count indictment that including charges for using electronic communication to procure a child under 16, distributing child abuse material using a hidden network, indecent treatment of a child, and making and possessing child abuse material.

A mother who discovered her 12-year-old daughter had fallen into the trap of an online sexual predator has shared her story in the hope it saves other families from the same pain and suffering.

Just a week ago Celia* (name changed) sat in Mackay courthouse, determined to face online monster Sean Lachlan Martin who corrupted her little girl and only child.

The NSW mum had been thinking about this moment non-stop on the flight to Mackay.

“It was very confronting,” Celia said.

“I knew that I was going to see him in person … that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to come – I wanted to see him in person, and I wanted him to see me.

“And know that I was the reason he was going to jail.”

‘SOMETHING MORE WAS GOING ON’

Before he was caught, Martin had targeted the woman’s 12-13 year old daughter over 11 months, coercing and manipulating her into sending graphic sexual conversations – over almost 3000 messages – and trading explicit naked photos.

They even spoke about meeting up.

Sean Lachlan Martin hid his face outside the Mackay court.

Celia said she noticed an almost immediate change in her daughter, who became secretive and withdrawn.

“She would go off into her room and hide away to do things,” she said, adding her daughter’s access to electronic devices had always been limited to school and restricted at home to certain days and times.
“It got to the point where we were telling her or asking her to put things away and she would fight us on it,” she said.

“It was serious and her reaction to us taking stuff off her was, almost violent.

“That’s how much she didn’t want to give us her devices.”

Celia said it just felt wrong and “completely out of character”.

“That’s when I realised that something more was going on,” she said.

So, she went through her daughter’s devices and “found everything”.

Reading the terrible truth about their conversations was devastating – her daughter had not only been coerced into extreme sexual behaviour, but she also thought she was in love with her predator.

“Her emotional connection to him at that point … was so staggering to me,” she said.

“My husband, he couldn’t read the conversations. He tried and it made him physically sick”.

Celia however read every word because she needed to “stomach it in a way to actually action it”.

A brave mum is speaking out after Sean Lachlan Martin (pictured) preyed on her young daughter.

“He (Martin) asked her a lot of leading questions that made her want to answer his questions in the way that he wanted,” she said.

“So, she said these things to him because that’s what he coaxed out of her.

“I can’t imagine any sort of worse pain or just pure disgust from what I was feeling.”

So, she used her anger as her drive to make sure Martin was exposed.

‘KIDS BELIEVE THEY ARE UNTOUCHABLE’

Celia phoned the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, sparking an AFP investigation that eventually led to Martin’s arrest almost a year later in August 2023.

But not before the now 46-year-old managed to reignite conversations with the girl via her Nintendo Switch gaming console after Celia initially put a stop to their communication.

“If he’d had the money to come (interstate) like he kept saying he would, he would have come and he would have taken her,” Celia believed.

Her message for other parents was that children were “smarter than you think they are”.

“They know their way around everything so even if you put in parental controls … they know a way around it,” she said.

“Don’t think that you know more than them.

“Kids believe they’re untouchable … at some point they get themselves into situations because they’re innocent and they don’t realise that people actually want to harm them.”

Celia’s intervention is one of the main reasons Martin was arrested and returned to jail for at least the next six months.

“There’s no way I could have just ignored it,” she said, adding she also needed her daughter to understand how serious it was from having to make police statements.

Throughout the investigation Celia would learn officers already had their eye on Martin but didn’t have enough evidence, she said.

She would also later learn just how depraved Martin was including that he had been speaking with three other children, had been sharing her daughter’s photos with others and liked to masturbate to the worst type of child exploitation – the sadistic details of which were read out in court.

Celia said the revelation her daughter was not the only target wasn’t a surprise, but she was saddened for the other parents.

“I knew what I was going through and what we were going through,” she said.

‘MUST BE EMBARRASSING’

Martin pleaded guilty to a 14-count indictment that including charges for using electronic communication to procure a child under 16, distributing child abuse material using a hidden network, indecent treatment of a child, and making and possessing child abuse material.

He was jailed for five years with parole eligibility in August 2025 after serving at least another six months. He already spent about 14 months in presentence custody that was declared time already served.

Small in stature, Martin tried to avoid having his photo taken and kept his head angled down the entire time he was in court – not once looking at Celia as she read him her victim impact statement.

She said it was important for her to read those words, her words to him.

“I don’t know if he looked remorseful, he just looked like he was feeling a bit shit about himself,” Celia said.

“It must be embarrassing … to be sitting there and have someone talk about you and the thing that you’ve done.”

READ THE FULL COURT REPORT HERE. 

Originally published as Mum speaks out after Sean Lachlan Martin jailed for online child sexual offending