NSW child abuse material offences: Offenders sentenced named
People caught with child abuse material can be from all walks of life. Read the list of NSW residents, from tradies to teachers, guilty of possessing sickening stashes.
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For victims of child abuse whose pain and suffering has been captured and distributed, there is no “stereotypical” offender who could be involved in the vile crimes.
In the NSW Police Force, dedicated units work hard to find those who possess and share heinous child abuse material, and to bring those sites down.
Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty and Child Exploitation Internet Unit Manager Detective Inspector Chris Goddard spoke with NewsLocal about how they have proactive squads who trawl the internet to find offenders.
“Suffice to say that we’re proactively on the internet regularly. We use a variety of platforms and a variety of MO to identify child abuse material,” Inspector Goddard said.
“We use different policing strategies and networks to identify those that are in possession and involved in the possession and dissemination of child abuse material.”
Inspector Goddard said there is no stereotypical offender when it comes to child abuse material or any, whether it be possession or production.
“We arrest people from all identities and arrest them from all walks of life, including business professionals, tradies, school teachers – all walks of life, are involved in the dissemination of child abuse material,” he said.
“Now, there is no Dennis Ferguson. He was the poster boy for all things paedophile.
“Long hair, scruffy beard, skinny and all that, but there is no longer a quintessential stereotypical online child sex offender anymore.”
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A LIST OF NSW RESIDENTS GUILTY OF POSSESSING SICKENING STASHES
Commander Doherty said offenders can be any age and any location because it is a “borderless offence”. She said it’s not just pornography, but abuse.
“Children are actually being abused, to create this and every time it’s reviewed, or resold or passed on … that child has been re-victimised,” she said.
“For a child who has been a victim of this, every time they walk down the street and someone looks at them … even into adulthood they are thinking, I wonder if they’ve seen that video or if they’ve seen that picture, so they are continually re-traumatised over it.
“And that’s where it’s important that we, you know, we do address this, and if anyone has information about it, that they do come forward to police and children are supported.”
The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research records the rate of pornography offences which includes the police incident categories of possessing or disseminate child pornography and possessing or publishing indecent material.
In the year to June 2022, NSW recorded 897 pornography offences which was less than the 946 recorded in the previous 12 months.
When comparing the 12 months to June 2020 to June 2021, there was a 24 per cent increase in recorded incidents from 761 to 946.
However, Commander Doherty said the increase in numbers does not necessarily reflect an increase in crime type, but potentially an increase in law enforcement detection driven by new investigation techniques.
She also said the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad started with four detectives, and has now grown to 24 which would also contribute to the increase in offences due to more work being completed.
The local government area with the highest number of pornography offences in the 12 months to June 2022 was the Central Coast at 50 incidents followed by Penrith, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Liverpool and the Inner West.
Full Stop Australia provides free, confidential, 24/7 counselling for anyone impacted by sexual, domestic and family violence nationwide. Counsellors are available at 1800 385 578 or at www.fullstop.org.au.
Rabie Mouhajer
Charges were laid after Australian Federal Police raided a Campbelltown home in September 2020 and seized multiple devices including mobile phones and laptops before arresting Rabie Mouhajer.
Rabie admitted to using apps such as Snapchat to send and receive child abuse material. One user messaged him to say that had some material of someone who looks “really young, looks more like rape” to which Rabie responded “show me”.
While handing down his sentence, Judge Andrew Colefax revealed the contents of the child abuse material was “disturbing” and “depraved” with “children as young as two in visible distress with some being tortured”.
Rabie was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and six months. Mouhajer will be eligible for release from November 26, 2024.
Daniel Houweling
A former Illawarra cop escaped jail time after he was found with child abuse material on his phone while he was employed with the NSW Police Force.
Daniel Houweling pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material using carriage service and use carriage service to access child abuse, after hundreds of disturbing images were found on his phone.
The former senior constable told Judge Andrew Haesler during a sentencing hearing that he first noticed an attraction to young girls when he was 13, but rejected it out of fear of consequence.
On his phone, officers from the Professional Standards Command found 237 images and seven videos of child abuse material.
According to the documents, 10 illegal images were located in a folder named ‘documents’, depicting pre-pubescent females in various stages of undress, engaging in sexually explicit poses.
Houweling, who was undertaking treatment for his pedophilic attraction, was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month suspended jail sentence.
David Macpherson
David Macpherson, a casual teacher at Ambarvale High School in Sydney’s south west, sent sexually explicit messages to an investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl.
The Woodbine man worked as a casual teacher after he retired as the school’s deputy principal. He pleaded guilty to six charges, including one count of using a carriage service to groom an person aged under 16 for sex and two counts of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material.
In September 2020, a police officer from the Child Exploitation internet Unit assumed the online identity (AOI) of a 14-year-old girl.
Macpherson sent messages to AOI asking if she would sexually touch herself. He then proceeded to give detailed and explicit instructions on how to masturbate for over an hour, a court heard.
On September 8, he encouraged AOI to take and send a topless picture, saying “maybe in front of your mirror is probably the easiest way”.
A court heard when Macpherson was arrested, his phone was open and unlocked, revealing a picture of an underage female in underwear.
In April of this year, Macpherson was sentenced to a non-parole period of two years and six months.
William Ruming
A Batemans Bay man who pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material after his wife uncovered a cache of explicit images and messages avoided jail time.
Father of two William Ruming was convicted and sentenced to a three-year community corrections order, and ordered to complete 400 hours of community service.
Ruming’s wife was using the flashlight function on her husband’s phone when she made the discovery, which included messages from a group chat titled “family enthusiasts” and a user named “pantie man”.
In conversations recorded in police documents, the 36-year-old former Sanctuary Point and Surfside man received multiple images, including of pre-pubescent girls posing or engaged in sexual acts.
Luke Cockcroft
Sydney Trains worker Lucke Cockcroft was sentenced after police found multiple child abuse videos on his phone after he shared one to a group on a messaging app.
Court documents show that officers initially found three videos of pre-pubescent girls and boys and females involved in sexual acts, with one showing a young female girl engaging in fellatio on an adult male.
The documents further state that when the police spoke with Cockcroft he said “I know there is a video of a young girl performing oral on an old man”.
His lawyer told the court that his client was remorseful and ashamed of his actions and acknowledged they were very serious.
Magistrate Robert Rabbidge said the children depicted in this imagery are victims of “very abusive and very greedy adults”.
He convicted and sentenced Cockcroft to a two-year community corrections order with the order to complete 150 hours of community service.
Zoran Necovski
A “predatory” courier who was caught with a horrific hoard of nearly 30,000 items of child abuse material was jailed.
Zoran Necovski, 58, appeared at Wollongong Local Court earlier this year for sentencing on six counts of possessing child abuse material.
Necovski’s sickening crimes were unearthed when police raided his Keira St abode in Port Kembla and seized 17 devices.
According to court documents, police showed him a photo of an adult man sexually molesting an infant girl and all he could muster was “Mmmm”.
Necovski was shown three other files found on one of the hard drives, all depicting horrendous sexual acts being performed on children under eight, and he said “Disgusting”, “Doesn’t ring a bell” and “Sounds impossible”.
Magistrate Claire Girotto described Necovski‘s crimes as “callous and predatory” before convicting him and sentencing him to a two-year prison sentence with a non-parole period of 14 months.
Joshua Dalton
A young man was sentenced for possessing and producing child sex abuse material after police discovered more than 8600 images and videos at his house.
Moss Vale man Joshua Dalton pleaded guilty to possessing and producing child sex abuse material and was sentenced this year.
According court documents, police came across evidence that the local supermarket worker was in possession of child abuse material on July 21 last year.
Police facts state that his partner confronted him about whether police would locate anything, and he said “yes, if they took the USB that was in my jacket”.
When she asked what they would find, he said “child porn”.
According to documents, his partner located the USB stick inside a small hidden pocket of the jacket, which Dalton wanted her to flush down the toilet. She refused and handed it over to the Southern Highlands Police Station the following day.
Facts state that after conducting forensic examinations of the USB, police located 447 videos and 8195 images of child sexual abuse.
Dalton was sentenced to prison for four years, backdated to July 21, with a non parole period of 26 months from that date. He is to be supervised upon release by community corrections.
Warren John Kemp
An ex-paramedic was spared from being locked up for a string of vile child sexual abuse material crimes due to his medication leading to “hypersexuality”.
Warren John Kemp pleaded guilty possessing child abuse material; disseminating child abuse material, intentionally recording intimate images without consent; and two counts of intentionally distributing intimate images without consent.
The horrendous offending occurred during the first half of 2021 with Kemp using messaging services Viber and Kik to send and receive the child exploitation material.
In March, Kemp sent 58 videos and two images via Viber to a person, saying “She loves it. What do you think about the one asleep?”.
Kemp was convicted and sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order which was to run concurrently with a two-year community corrections order which will expire in August, 2024.
Bevan Coker
An Illawarra man said he was “selfishly messed up on ice” when he accessed and transmitted “disgusting” child abuse images online, adding he could not fathom the crimes he committed.
Bevan Coker pleaded guilty to four charges, including using a carriage service to access child abuse material, two counts of using a carriage service to transmit/publish/promote child abuse and possessing or controlling child abuse material-use carriage service.
In court it was revealed the images and videos, while low in volume, were “highly disturbing”, showing children from newborn ages to 10 years old being sexually abused, some while blindfolded and tied up.
In giving evidence, Coker said he never had a sexual attraction to children before he started using ice, and that it only occurred while he was high.
Coker was convicted and sentenced to two years and three months jail, allowing his release from jail after nine months on a recognisance release order.
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