Child abuse material: Sydney’s predators and their depraved crimes revealed
These are the dark secrets and depraved crimes of Sydney predators with a fixation on child abuse images. Find out what happened when their despicable crimes were exposed.
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Their depraved crimes shocked the community.
These are the stories of some of Sydney’s predators and what happened when their double lives were exposed.
JAMIE MCKEAY
Convicted
Cabramatta man Jamie McKeay was caught in possession of seven pictures of a pre-pubescent girl in stages of undress on his laptop hard drive.
The father and New Zealand native was brought undone following an undercover police sting last year.
A Sydney court heard he tried to set up a meeting with a person he believed was a 14-year-old virgin girl but was in fact police posing as a Thai girl named Kim.
The 33-year-old posted an ad on online classified website Locanto last June “looking to reward an Asian girl for some fun” and specified the girl must be in her teens.
After receiving a message from the profile of a 14-year-old girl, the 33-year-old asked a number of sexually explicit questions, including a request to ejaculate on the girl’s body.
A Sydney court heard he was depressed and lonely at the time of the offending.
McKeay was convicted of possessing child pornography and using a carriage service to procure a person under 16.
He was sentenced to a jail term of two years and three months.
NICK WARBY
Pleaded guilty
The pedophilic behaviour of Knox Grammar’s former head of aquatic sports Nick Warby was uncovered when a colleague found his phone next to a pool on campus and discovered child abuse material on the device.
The 31-year-old from Bayview had accidentally left his phone behind after being asked to change his clothes so he could be filmed in a promotional video for the prestigious school last August.
When his colleague looked through the phone to try to identify its owner, he uncovered a number of images depicting what he believed to be child abuse material.
A police investigation led to the seizure of the phone as well as two other mobile phones and two USB sticks from Warby’s car and home, which were found to contain hundreds of child abuse images and dozens of videos, including an image of a baby aged under two being sexually assaulted by an adult man.
Warby told police after his arrest last year he was “ashamed”.
He has pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material and will be sentenced in Downing Centre District Court next month.
JOSE MORA-AFONSO
Convicted
A former hairdresser from the eastern suburbs, Jose Mora-Afonso is now behind bars after more than one million child abuse images were found on his personal devices.
The 40-year-old, who once owned a hairdressing salon in Rushcutters Bay, pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and disseminating child abuse material.
He was sentenced to a three-year jail term with a non-parole period of one year and nine months for the first charge, and nine months for the latter.
Mora-Afonso maintained during court proceedings one of his male escort clients had given him a hard drive containing the child abuse material and that he was not attracted to children.
He was arrested last year and his Darlinghurst home searched, with police uncovering 1,020,490 photos and almost 10,000 videos across eight devices.
A judge concluded even if he was handed the material, Mora-Afonso would have had to download it onto his devices.
The judge ultimately found he used the child abuse material for sexual gratification.
RYAN BAYLISS
Convicted, intends to appeal sentence
Former labourer Ryan Bayliss was handed a minimum jail term of three years in April after his predatory behaviour towards a young girl was aired in court.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to groom and procure a child under 16 for sex, transmit child pornography and transmitting indecent material.
Two other charges of using a carriage service to procure a child for sex and possessing child pornography were taken into account during his sentencing earlier this year.
Gosford District Court heard Bayliss lied to his 13-year-old victim about his age, pretending to be 18, and contacted her via social media and later through mobile phone messages.
At one point he sent her a picture of his erect penis.
When the girl ceased contact with him, Bayliss threatened to send intimate photos she had shared with him to her school.
The court heard he also sent messages to the girl’s teenage friend detailing the acts he wished to perform on his first victim.
Bayliss filed a notice of intention to appeal his sentence in April.
JAMES GLENN WRAY
Convicted
Penrith chef James Glenn Wray was sentenced to a jail term of three years and six months after he was found in possession of hundreds of graphic child abuse videos and files.
In June, the 28-year-old faced Katoomba District Court, which heard he used cryptocurrency to download the content.
Police found more than 900 files of child abuse material during a raid of his home last July.
The material was found to generally involve young girls aged 10-14 in graphic sex acts with adult men.
Investigators swooped on Wray after a tip-off from US Homeland Security.
Wray was convicted of accessing and possessing child abuse material and will be eligible for parole in December next year.
BRUCE ARTHUR PASCOE
Convicted
A well-known figure in the northern beaches’ boating community, Bruce Arthur Pascoe was sentenced to a 13-month jail term in June for possessing 30 photos of pre-teen girls either posing naked or engaged in sexual intercourse.
The 59-year-old Pittwater man, who ran a boat canvas cover and upholstery business at Church Point, pleaded guilty to one count of possess child abuse material.
Police found the vile content, which included depictions of a girl as young as 10 performing a sexual act, on two USB sticks and a laptop.
An image of an adult male and female performing sexual activities in front of an eight-year-old girl was also found in a folder titled “Smile” on his laptop.
A Sydney court heard Pascoe told police he didn’t think he was doing anything illegal because the pictures were “published in the public domain”.
His jail term includes a non-parole period of seven months.
KURTIS WHALEY
Convicted, intends to appeal his sentence
A former optical assistant, Whaley is serving time behind bars for blackmailing teenage boys for online child porn.
The 24-year-old Manly Vale man was sentenced in May to a maximum of nine years and six months’ prison, with a non-parole period of six years and four months.
The UK-born predator pleaded guilty to 54 child porn offences dating from June 2014 until his arrest last February at Sydney Airport.
Investigators uncovered child pornography on his laptop and iPad as well as material depicting a further 250 unidentified children as young as four years old on his external hard drives.
A Sydney court heard Whaley posed as a 16-year-old girl and collected a stash of 700 videos and images of 49 victims aged between eight and 15 by saving Snapchat and Instagram photos and secretly recording Skype and Omegle live streams of naked boys.
In an apology letter to the court, Whaley said his actions made him feel sick.
He pleaded guilty to 29 counts of soliciting child porn, five counts of transmitting child porn, 18 counts of using a telecommunications service for sexual activity with children aged under 16, and one count each of possessing and producing child abuse material.
On May 22, he filed a notice of intent to appeal his sentence.
RHYS BRYAN MCGREGOR
Convicted
Former Central Coast primary teacher Rhys Bryan McGregor was caught with dozens of child abuse images involving victims as young as four.
Police began investigating after he was spotted looking at something inappropriate on a staffroom computer by his Tuggerah Public School principal in 2016.
Investigators searched McGregor’s North Avoca home and seized a USB stick, a laptop and a desktop computer, which were found to contain more than 150 child abuse images.
McGregor, then aged 60, was charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material, to which he pleaded guilty.
He was sentenced in 2017 to a nine-month intensive corrections order for the majority of images found on the USB and two six-month intensive corrections orders for the laptop and computer, served concurrently.
ASHLEY BRYAN MIRKO
Convicted
Ashley Bryan Mirko, a young man who once worked as a manager at a fast food restaurant on the Central Coast, was handed a jail sentence after admitting to possessing child pornography.
Mirko was sentenced last April to 18 months in prison after police found 897 images and 37 videos on five devices seized during a raid of his home in 2018.
During court proceedings, Mirko, then aged 27, gave evidence he looked at the images because he was depressed from the stress of his job as a manager at Carl’s Jr in Bateau Bay.
The court also heard he was interested in material depicting pre-pubescent boys being penetrated and in pain, and had been abused as a child.
He pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and using a carriage service to transmit it.