Inside Arkstone: Tregear pedophile, to be sentenced for child sex abuse, bestiality
A man - who raped a boy and had sex with a dog — boasted about killing babies online with other pedophiles before being arrested in Australia’s biggest online child sex abuse investigation.
Central Coast
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A 29-year-old man, who molested young boys and performed an “act of bestiality” with his own dog, boasted about raping and killing newborns with other depraved pedophiles in online chat forums.
But his barrister told a court while most right-minded people would find it repulsive, it was just “excess verbiage” and the way pedophiles got off talking to each other online, rather than an indication of future violence.
The man from Tregear in Sydney’s west, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced a sentencing hearing in Gosford District Court on Friday where he confirmed his pleas of guilty to 14 offences. He also pleaded guilty to a further five to be taken into account when he receives his final penalty.
His barrister said there was a “theme” that ran through the online conversations between his client and other pedophiles about the pain and degradation they wished to inflict on children, some as young as newborns.
“There were comments ... that can only be described as wicked and vile,” he told the court.
However he said his client — who first began abusing a child in 2014 when he was 20 and the victim was aged about four — had no prior criminal record and had never been violent before.
He said the language used was not a “precursor”, or expressed a physical desire, to hurt children.
Judge Tanya Bright said the comments did indicate his “reprehensible” attitude towards children and his lack of concern for their welfare.
The man was detected as part of Operation Arkstone which uncovered an online network of Australian and foreign nationals sharing child abuse and bestiality material.
When officers carried out a search of the man’s home, they found three mobile phones with child abuse material including one which had 105 images and seven videos.
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.
The facts stated that the man also engaged in sexual acts with his dog.
The man pleaded guilty to two counts of 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.
The man will be sentenced on December 1.
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