Mother’s plea to parents after ‘allowing’ child sex offender into her home

Alice* faced every parent’s worst nightmare. A video involving her daughter had been circulated among a pedophile ring. Even worse, the video was taken by a friend.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

Single mum Alice* discovered a sexually explicit video involving her five-year-old daughter had been circulated among a pedophile ring.

Even worse, the video was taken by a family friend – and Alice didn’t know about it until a police officer showed up on her doorstep.

Now, nearly three years later, she says she’s finally started to forgive herself for letting “a pedophile through my front door”.

In November 2021, E-crimes detectives knocked on Alice’s front door and said a family friend had been communicating with a known pedophile ring online.

“Honestly it just felt like my world had broken. Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days. The world had just stopped and everyone else was living their normal lives,” Alice told The Advertiser.

“I was friends with somebody that, at the time, I thought was a family friend or an aunt to my children. But behind my back, they were doing unspeakable acts and they were part of a pedophile ring and recorded images of my child.

“We were friends for three years prior to their arrest. We would hang out and being a mum, we would do things with my daughter. They would even have girly sleepovers with us.”

In September 2022, Josh Dean French, who now goes by Jayda Dean, was sentenced to four years and 10 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and six months after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated producing and two counts of possessing child exploitation material.

Jayda Dean is serving a four year prison sentence for child sex offences. Pictures: Instagram

Dean pleaded guilty to producing and possessing child abuse material. Pictures: Instagram

Dean, who identifies as a transgender woman, came to the attention of SA Police and was arrested in November 2021 after an investigation into other alleged child sexual offending revealed explicit conversations sent to their female name.

Alice said at the time, she never noticed anything out of the ordinary between Dean and her daughter, but looking back “there were signs”.

“For someone that did not have kids, they were very willing to always do activities that involved the kids,” she said.

“I was at home, and it was a normal day. I had received a phone call from my boss saying that there were E-crime detectives at my place of employment looking for me. She gave them my address and when I opened the door, my world just broke.”

She said when the detectives came into her home, they showed her a sexually explicit video Dean had filmed involving her sleeping child, and asked her to identify her daughter.

“My heart broke into a million pieces, and it is something I will never, ever forget for the rest of my life,” she said.

“Within the space of half an hour, I was told what had happened, I was shown the video, and they started taking things in my house. They took my daughter’s quilt cover and other things that were in the video to prove it was my daughter, and it all happened so quickly.

“They were a friend and now I can’t believe anything anyone tells me. People always say that you need to be careful of the creepy man on the corner or stranger danger, but it was someone in my own house, that I trusted. That I allowed in. That I opened the door to.”

Alice now wants other parents whose children may have been victims of child sexual offenders not to blame themselves.

“It was really hard, it took me almost two years to say out loud that I had done nothing wrong,” she said.

Alice* is now urging other parents not to blame themselves.

“This wasn’t my fault, but I just felt so guilty because as a mother you’re supposed to protect your children, you’re never meant to allow anything to happen to them and I invited that person into my house thinking they were a friend.

“I feel like I gave them access to my child.

“You don’t ever get over it but you learn to live with it. As hard as it is, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not your guilt to carry and you don’t want your kids to be victims, you want them to be survivors.

“If you notice your kids are uncomfortable around someone or in situations, speak to them. Don’t be so willing to invite friends into your home. At the end of the day, it’s okay to second guess someone.

“People always think pedophiles are old creepy males. It is not that at all. They can be male or female, they can be anybody. Pedophiles don’t discriminate, it can literally be anybody.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the victim.

Originally published as Mother’s plea to parents after ‘allowing’ child sex offender into her home