Paedophile Justin Kenneth Radford: Former Ch9 tape librarian jailed for 18 years

A Central Coast man who filmed himself sexually abusing a young boy before he was caught with thousands of “horrific and depraved” child abuse images and videos has been sentenced.

Former Nine Network tape library assistant Justin Kenneth Radford faced Gosford District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 17 offences.

The 30-year-old was arrested in February last year after Australian Federal Police (AFP) were tipped off by US authorities about a Snapchat account being used to disseminate child sexual abuse material.

Radford was charged with more than 100 offences but later pleaded guilty to 17 including seven counts of sexually touching a young boy, four counts of using the child to produce child abuse material and disseminating it and thousands of images and videos of child abuse and bestiality material to 19 separate individuals.

Wyong man Justin Radford, 30, was arrested in February 2020 as part of an Australian Federal Police investigation into an alleged child sex abuse ring. Picture: AFP

The court heard AFP raided Radford’s Wyong home where they seized three mobile phones and a laptop containing an estimated 4416 videos and 11,151 photos of child sex abuse and bestiality material with 56 per cent of the files rated “category 4” being the second worst type conceivable.

The court heard the images and videos depicted penetrative acts with victims ranging from newborns to teenagers and were described as “horrific and depraved”.

Judge Tanya Bright said Radford also filmed himself sexually abusing a young boy 10 times with the intention of sharing the material with other “like-minded” people and showed a “reprehensible and grave” concern for his victim’s welfare.

She said the boy’s parents only became aware of the abuse when informed by AFP officers following Radford’s arrest.

Radford. Picture: Instagram

Radford will be spending many years in jail.

In a victim impact statement the boy’s parents said there was “now way to explain” the hurt his “despicable” offending caused.

Judge Bright sentenced Radford to 18 years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years.

With time served since his arrest he will be eligible for parole on February 6, 2032.

Judge Bright said she could not be satisfied he would not reoffend.

At his sentencing hearing in June the court heard “it was not clear” what led him from mainstream pornography to child abuse and bestiality material other than he experienced a reduction in his sex drive and started taking drugs.

His barrister said Radford “fell into that group” and started to get aroused again.

An agreed set of facts states AFP Child Protection Operations officers were tipped off from US authorities in January last year about a Snapchat account in Australia being used to share child abuse material.

Devices seized in the arrest of Wyong man Justin Radford, 29, in February 2020 as part of an Australian Federal Police investigation into an alleged child sex abuse ring. Picture: AFP

Internet service provider data showed the subscriber associated with the IP address was Radford, of Wyong.

Radford participated in a field record of conversation during which he admitted he was the user of a Snapchat account created in January 2019 for the sole purpose of sending and receiving “child abuse material”.

“He would find like-minded people using an open source forum on the web then add them to his Snapchat account,” the facts state.

Radford told officers he would use Snapchat to send links to Dropbox or Mega accounts and would rename contacts according to the relationship he shared with them.

“For example contacts who required CAM (child abuse material) to be shared before they would provide the accused with CAM would be renamed with the acronym ‘S2R’ or ‘send to receive’,” the facts state.

Radford will spend the next 11 years in jail having already served one year on remand. Picture: Supplied

A review of Radford’s devices found 10 videos he had filmed of himself abusing a pre-pubescent boy on four separate days from as early as January 2019.

The videos, ranging from nine to 51 seconds, show Radford sexually abusing the young boy who tries to stop him.

The facts state in one video Radford stops the boy from leaving a room before abusing him.

In one email exchange with a fellow paedophile Radford boasts “I have tons! Id (sic) rather not share online though (laughing emoji)”.

“Also please hide or remove these since my names on them haha,” he emailed the man.

Due to the sheer quantity of material in more than 80 Mega and Dropbox links, along with the fact the links were still available for other like-minded persons, AFP officers downloaded nine of the links and had the rest shut down.

On January 16, 2020 Radford forwarded six videos to a user via a Mega link and asked him “Didn’t you say you had baby stuff”.

Radford sent the man a video of the boy he abused and said “I hope to get more of him soon”.

He sent links to another paedophile, who told Radford he “loves playing” with his son and Radford said “I wish I had a son to play with” and “im (sic) so jealous of you”.

Following Radford’s arrest AFP officers established strike force Operation Arkstone, which has led to the arrest of 17 men across NSW, Western Australia and Queensland with more than 800 child sex offence charges being laid.