William Ruming: Batemans Bay father busted with child abuse material to avoid incarceration

A South Coast man whose wife uncovered a cache of child abuse material on his phone including explicit images and online messages has learned his fate. Find out what happened in court.

A Batemans Bay man who pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material after his wife uncovered a cache of explicit images and messages will remain on the South Coast after avoiding jail time.

Father-of-two William Ruming was residing in Surfside when one evening in August 2021 his wife used the flashlight function on his phone while he was asleep.

In doing so, she inadvertently revealed a series of sexually explicit images and messages, including 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 man received multiple images, including of pre-pubescent girls posing or engaged in sexual acts.

Ruming, who also previously resided in the Shoalhaven region, had relocated to Jimboomba near Logan in Southeast Queensland after handing himself into police in September 2021.

William Ruming leaves Batemans Bay Local Court during an appearance in August. Picture: Nathan Schmidt

Last month, Ruming told Batemans Bay Local Court Magistrate Doug Dick he would return to the NSW South Coast so that he might be eligible for community-based sentencing.

Appearing at the same court on Monday, solicitor Wayne Boom said that while the charge was serious, a sentence of community service would be “more of a hassle” for Ruming than a community-based sentence.

“The offences are serious,” Mr Boom said.

“They have been talked about in the media, and involve the use of social media.

“It may well be that the good thing to do is that Ruming undertake community service work. It involves a lot of hours and would give him time to think about what he has done.”

Magistrate Dick sentenced Ruming to a 12-month community corrections order to be served in the community from Sanctuary Point, where he now resides since returning to NSW.

Ruming was also sentenced to 200 hours of community service, and a $2000 fine.

“I’m not going to lecture you,” Magistrate Dick said.

“From what I’ve read in the sentencing assessment report, I know you’ve learned your lesson and if you could turn back the hands of time you would.”