Martin Claridge sentenced for child sex abuse

A New Zealand army veteran and former chief technology officer at a major global tech company is facing deportation after he admitted to sexually abusing a child. Here’s the latest.

Martin Claridge, a former chief technology officer at a major international company, has been jailed for sexually abusing a child.

A former high-flying chief technology officer at a major international company was already serving jail-time for child abuse material crimes when he was charged again with abusing a child.

Martin Claridge was a New Zealand army veteran who worked his way up through multiple technology companies both across the ditch and in Australia until he was living the high life in Sydney’s prestigious Toaster building at Circular Quay.

But the former employee at multinational tech company Avaya traded his sparkling harbour views for prison greens when he was jailed in November 2015 for three child abuse material offences.

The 62-year-old New Zealand national was just 30 days away from release on parole after seven years behind bars when he was charged again with two counts of sexual intercourse with a child.

The Toaster building in Circular Quay.

In her summary of agreed facts, Judge Penelope Hock at Sydney District Court said the child reported accusations Claridge forced her to perform oral sex on him and then forcibly performed it on her in 2013, when she was in primary school.

Police had already been circling Claridge since he was charged in 2015 with using a carriage service to attempt to procure a child for sex, after a police officer from the Child Abuse Exploitation Unit engaged with him online using an assumed identity.

Judge Hock said Claridge described previously assaulting a young girl during his conversations with the officer.

“He spoke about sexually assaulting the victim, there were three sexualised conversations about the victim, he pleaded guilty to that offending and he was sentenced in 2017,” Judge Hock said.

“In 2022, he participated in an interview in relation to these allegations. He denied them, he stated the conversations referred to earlier were made up, ‘bulls--t’ and sexual fantasies.”

But Claridge ultimately pleaded guilty to both offences in the local court.

Judge Hock briefly quoted parts of a victim impact statement made by the girl.

Claridge is behind bars.

“He traumatised me to a point where I don’t feel safe around any elderly men,” she wrote.

“I don’t have much to say because it hurts too much to put into words.”

The court heard the girl had not come forward until several years after the assault because she was too young to understand what had happened to her.

Judge Hock said Claridge reported to a psychologist he felt “shame and remorse” about how his crimes impacted the victim.

“(The act) is particularly intrusive and humiliating, accompanied by force,” Judge Hock said.

“Self-evidently, it would have been extremely distressing and confusing for any child.”

The court heard Claridge served in the New Zealand Army for 11 years and worked in various IT roles in New Zealand before moving to Australia.

The court heard Claridge previously struggled with alcohol and cocaine use, but had been abstinent since he first entered prison in 2015, and had worked in the garden.

Judge Hock convicted Claridge and sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment with a five-year non-parole period.

With the accumulation of his prior prison term, Claridge will have spent 11 years behind bars before he is eligible for parole on November 18, 2026.

It is anticipated he will be deported to New Zealand at the conclusion of his prison term.