Vi Minh Lam: Dentist admits to child abuse material stash

A dark obsession out of practice hours led a Sydney family dentist right into the hands of the AFP. What they found when they searched his laptop was “disturbing”.

UPDATE 

An inner west dentist who went from a local family practitioner to stashing a horror horde of child pornography has avoided being sent to jail.

The internet activity of Lidcombe man Vi Minh Lam, 53, was initially picked up in 2018 by an American not for profit that trawls for child predators online, according to court documents.

Lam, who ran a practice in Homebush, had been using an account on Tumblr which attracted the attention of authorities who traced the email account and mobile number associated with it back to him.

He had pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and intentionally recording an intimate image without consent earlier this year.

According to the agreed statement of facts tendered in Burwood Local Court in May, what officers found when they raided his home was revolting.

The tip off had come to the AFP from a US-based organisation.

Among the trove of child abuse material on two devices belonging to Lam were nine videos police described as being “of a disturbing nature” including images of children being sexually abused as young as eight.

Court documents state the children were either “involved in a sex act, witnessing a sex act or focused/concentrated on the anal or genital region on the minor”.

The investigation, initially led by the AFP’s tech heads, also uncovered videos taken by Lam of women in the bathroom using the toilet and showering.

According to the same court documents, the first words Lam uttered when confronted by police about the material were: “Yeah I know I don’t know why I keep things so long”.

On Monday, Magistrate Alison Viney sentenced Lam to a three-year community corrections order.

Magistrate Viney ordered Lam to complete 250 hours of community service as part of the sentence and made it a condition that Lam be under the supervision of corrections for the three years while in the community. 

EARLIER

BY ANTON ROSE ON MAY 17, 2021

Court documents have revealed what police uncovered when they raided the home of an unsuspecting suburban Sydney dentist after a tip off about disturbing child abuse material.

Lidcombe man Vi Minh Lam, 53, has pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and intentionally recording intimate images of women after similar charges were dropped on Monday.

According to an agreed statement of police facts tendered at Burwood Local Court the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children – an American not-for-profit – tipped off the Australian Federal Police in December 2018.

Based on the organisation’s information, police were alerted to the suspicious activity of a Tumblr account named “dueerose” whose email and mobile number was linked back to Lam, a dentist who has a practice in Homebush.

When police raided his home seven months later in July 2019 their suspicions were confirmed.

Detective had found nine videos across two devices they said depicted “a real pre-pubescent child and the child is involved in a sex act, witnessing a sex act or the material is focused/concentrated on the anal or genital region of the child”, according to court documents.

Police said the material was “of a disturbing nature depicting the sexual abuse of children ranging in ages from eight years of age to early teens”.

Further investigation of the devices also turned up several videos discreetly taken by Lam inside a bathroom which showed several women, unaware they were being filmed, using the toilet and showering.

Police took a year to lay charges after being alerted the IP addresses were linked to a man in Sydney.

A further five months later in December 2019 police arrested Lam at his home, who nonchalantly admitted to storing it on an external hard drive and an Acer laptop.

Court papers document his response to questioning.

Police officer: “We have found some child abuse material on some of those devices”

Lam: “Yeah I don’t know why I keep things so long”.

Lam faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted of possessing child abuse material.

He will be sentenced when his case returns to Burwood Local Court later this year.

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