AFP officer allegedly posed as child to obtain explicit images of girls, court hears
AFP officer Joshua Tiffen and his twin brother Kenan Tiffen have pleaded not guilty to possessing child exploitation material after police allegedly uncovered 462 explicit videos of children in their Canberra home
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An Australian Federal Police officer posed as a child on the internet so he could “talk to female children and get them to do what he wanted”, according to court documents.
Joshua Rod Tiffen and his twin brother Kenan Lee Tiffen, both 42, have pleaded not guilty to possessing child exploitation material after police allegedly uncovered hundreds of explicit videos of young girls on storage devices found in the brothers’ Forde home.
At ACT Magistrates Court on Friday, their cases were adjourned to allow the prosecution to serve more evidence.
Joshua Tiffen, who has been suspended from duty, had identified himself as “Matt” to a woman he had met on the website Craigslist, according to police facts tendered in court.
The pair began making pornographic videos together after he told her he was looking for people interested in modelling work, according to the police facts.
He showed her videos of young children on his computer at the Forde house, the facts said.
“Matt told her that they were videos of children he had spoken to and he used the image of a young child to speak to other children,” the police facts said.
“Matt explained to her that he would talk to female children and get them to do what he wanted.
“This would include undressing and touching themselves.
“The woman saw that he had hundreds of these videos.”
According to court documents, on one occasion he showed her a photo on his phone of a three- or four-year-old child who was “naked and posing with her feet pulled up to the back of her neck while exposing her genitalia”.
“(Mr Tiffen) told her that he was interested in buying and selling children but did not provide any more information about this.”
He also allegedly told her he knew a man in Sydney who would “rent” out his daughter so other men could “babysit” her.
After breaking off contact with Mr Tiffen in April 2017, the woman raised the alarm with police after he contacted her in March this year.
“He asked her how motherhood was and she became concerned because she now had an infant daughter,” according to the police facts.
During a police interview, Joshua Tiffen admitted he had shown the woman child exploitation material but that he did not believe it to be real, according to the facts.
The facts stated he revealed the images to her as he wanted to “show her how sick some people can be” and that he had seen child exploitation material but only because it “just pops up” while looking at online pornography.
His brother Kenan Tiffen, an electrician, is accused of showing a different woman about 50 images of naked children, who appeared to be either Asian or European, in which their genitalia were exposed.
“(The woman) was shown one video of a young Asian girl having sexual intercourse with a middle aged caucasian man,” the police facts said.
“Kenan told her that he’d been into these images for a couple of years.”
Police allege he showed her the images after he had asked her not to “judge” him for a “secret he would like to show her” during a conversation about “sexual fantasies”.
According to court documents, police found at least 462 videos of girls, aged between 12 and 14, stripped naked and masturbating on storage devices belonging to Kenan Tiffen during a search warrant carried out on their home.
Police also allegedly found cameras hidden in the televisions of three female tenants living at the brothers’ Forde home that could be remotely viewed on Joshua Tiffen’s phone.
The women told police they were unaware of the cameras and never gave permission to be filmed.
At ACT Magistrates Court on Friday, the brothers’ lawyer Tom Taylor was granted an adjournment to August 23.
“A partial brief of evidence has been served,” Mr Taylor said outside court.
“Three is still more material to be served on my office and my clients are eagerly awaiting that material to consider their position.
“It would probably be inappropriate to discuss the charges in any more detail right now given the matters are before the courts and they’re pleading not guilty.”
An ACT police spokesman said Joshua Tiffen was immediately suspended from duty following the charge.
“All AFP members are expected to behave at all times in a manner that upholds the organisation’s core values, reputation and integrity,” he said.
“As this matter is now before the court, no further comment will be made.”
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