Inside Arkstone: Pedophile jailed for ‘grave’ crimes including sex with dog
A pedophile has been sentenced for sexually abusing three boys. But of all his “grave” acts, it might be trying to get a wolfhound-cross to mount him, twice, that haunts him forever.
Central Coast
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A man arrested as part of Operation Arkstone — an Australian-led crackdown on an international pedophile ring using popular and encrypted apps to share child abuse and bestiality material — has been sentenced to 17 years and four months jail.
The Tregear man in his 20s, who grew up on the Central Coast where he molested his first young victim, faced Gosford District Court on Wednesday.
The Judge slammed the pedophile, stating he demonstrated a limited insight into his “grave” offending and described his interest in child abuse material as an “understatement”.
However it might be the man’s sickening acts with a large wolfhound-cross-husky dog that could come back to haunt him long after he gets out of prison.
The court heard the insurance assessor filmed himself on all fours trying to insert the dog’s penis into his anus in 2017.
Incredibly the man filmed himself, again, trying to get the dog to mount him sexually three years later.
Footage of the two incidents were among more than 100 images and videos saved on the man’s three mobile phones which were seized by Australian Federal Police attached to Operation Arkstone in February last year.
Officers raided the man’s home 12 months after the arrest of former Channel 9 video librarian Justin Radford, of Wyong, in February 2020 following a tip-off from US authorities, which led to the formation of Operation Arkstone.
On Wednesday the man confirmed his pleas of guilty to 14 offences including
having sexual intercourse with a child, three counts of indecent assaulting a child, using a carriage services to transmit, solicit and access child abuse material and producing his own child abuse material.
He also pleaded guilty to meeting a child he had groomed for sexual activity and an act of bestiality with a dog, which the court heard was a “rolled up” charge and included the two videos shot three years apart.
An agreed set of facts state the offending against the first victim happened in Narara on the Central Coast when the victim was aged between four and six and the man was aged 21-23.
The man “self-produced” child abuse material using the victim, which started with him masturbating in front of him and progressed to horrendous sexual abuse over a number of years.
A review of the man’s phone showed that he shared images and videos of the victim with other people online via apps such as Telegram and Grindr which would include violent discussions about raping young victims until they couldn’t walk.
The man met the second victim, who was aged 13, on Instagram and said to him “damn bro you’re cute”.
They exchanged messages and sexual images before the man convinced the teen to meet up at a toilet block at Plumpton Park.
The man took videos of their sexual interaction, also sharing these online, and gave the victim $150.
The third victim, aged 14, was the son of the man’s work colleague who he sexually abused while camping at a sporting event in Bathurst.
Judge Tanya Bright said the abuse material seized on the man’s phones was “extremely graphic and disturbing” while he was also “obviously involved in depraved conversations with like-minded individuals” when he described acts he wished to do to his victims.
“These agreed facts clearly disclose very grave criminality,” Judge Bright said.
“This offender can be properly described, in my view, as a sexual predator.”
She sentenced the man to 17 years and four months jail with a non-parole period of eight years and 10 months.
With time served he will be eligible for release on December 23, 2029.
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