Kanwal: Convicted paedophile Mark Ginn allegedly used ‘Roblox’ currency for online abuse
A convicted paedophile allegedly used the virtual currency ‘Robux’ from the popular online game Roblox to pay children to film themselves in sexual acts, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A Central Coast man charged with engaging in sexual activity with children overseas and procuring them for sex used the virtual currency from the online game Roblox to fund his abuse, a court has heard.
Mark Ginn, of Kanwal, was not required to appear via video link at Wyong Local Court on Wednesday where the Commonwealth prosecutor said his matters had been delayed because of difficulties in liaising with his alleged victims who lived in the United States and Scotland.
The Commonwealth prosecutor also told the court Australian Federal Police (AFP) were also looking at laying further charges.
The 33-year-old has already been charged with seven offences including engaging in sexual activity with a child outside Australia in September last year, and procuring a child for sexual activity in February, 2021.
He was also charged with causing a child under 16 to have sex in his online presence, three counts of using a carriage service to transmit and access child abuse material and failing to comply with the Child Protection Registry.
An AFP police bail determination, tendered with the charge sheets, states Ginn was a convicted paedophile who had served a custodial sentence for similar online offences in 2014.
The determination states he lived with his mother at Kanwal and was on a disability pension.
“The accused has gone to great lengths to disguise his online presence by deleting social media applications and using aliases to avoid law enforcement detection” the AFP bail determination states.
The AFP determination states police were concerned if he was released on bail he may access and destroy electronic evidence contained on various social media applications and devices.
“Police allege this shows an ingrained pattern of behaviour and it is therefore likely that should the accused be released on bail, he would offend again,” the determination states.
“The accused has been engaging numerous young people overseas to perform sexual acts either upon themselves or others whilst filming these activities. The accused has then paid for these films by way of currency within a game called Roblox. The currency being Robux.”
The determination states he is subject to the Child Protection Register for previous convictions relating to online child sex offences and he displayed a “blatant disregard” for orders already imposed and “is likely to ignore any set of bail conditions”.
AFP officers raided his Kanwal address in March where they seized “a large amount of evidence on digital devices”, the court heard.
His matter was adjourned to December 1.
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