AFP goes after assets of Belgium tourist who lived off child porn
Belgium tourist Bryan Loyson, 26, appeared to be living the dream travelling Australia, but he was funding the trip through sinister means. Now jailed, he faces having his assets stripped as part of an aggressive new strategy.
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A Belgian tourist who paid for his lavish Australian holiday by selling “abhorrent” videos and photos of child abuse has become the first convicted child exploitation offender in this country to have his assets restrained.
Bryan Loyson, 26, appeared to be living the dream, posting photos of himself on social media surfing on the NSW south coast, soaking in a bath with a glass of red wine at the luxury Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour hotel and skydiving at Mission Beach in Tropical North Queensland.
The “divemaster trainee” is also pictured swimming in the shark-infested waters of the Neptune Islands in South Australia, bungee-jumped in Cairns and sailed around the Whitsundays.
His Instagram profile declared: “Dreams don’t work unless you do” — but it appears he wasn’t funding his trip by picking fruit.
After receiving a tip-off from the United States-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a man in Australia was uploading child abuse to Snapchat, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Team in February last year began investigating.
Tracing the digital trail, the team discovered the user was advertising a website selling explicit child abuse material on multiple social media platforms, including Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram.
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The user was also the administrator of a website that sold “packs” of child abuse material videos and images for $US50 — each pack containing dozens of videos obtained online, showing the abuse and exploitation of children across the world.
The AFP identified the user as a Belgian national, who arrived from Thailand to Australia in November 2018.
The man, who had been travelling around the country on a three-month holiday, was staying at a Sydney youth hostel when he was arrested in April 2019.
A search warrant was also executed in the Sydney suburb of Haymarket on April 8, the same year.
Loyson was arrested and charged with supplying child pornography through a carriage service, using a carriage service to access, transmit, make available, publish, distribute, advertising or promote child abuse material, and deal with the proceeds of crime worth $10,000 or more.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Downing Centre District Court on October 15 this year, receiving a maximum of four years in jail, with a non-parole period of two and a half years.
The AFP discovered Loyson had been selling the material since September 2018 until is arrest in April 2019, and the proceeds had been funding his lifestyle and round-the-world holidays.
In addition to his jail sentence, Loyson’s assets have been frozen as part of a new aggressive strategy initiated by AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, for the first time targeting the assets of offenders convicted of child exploitation offences.
Two bank accounts — one in Australia holding about $16,400, and another in Germany holding €8000 — plus camera equipment, a drone and scuba diving gear, with a combined estimated worth of $30,000 were restrained by the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) in the NSW Supreme Court on October 8.
AFP investigators also identified about $US19,000 in profits from the website, which has since been taken down.
The Taskforce will now start a civil case to determine if the assets of child sex offenders can be confiscated.
AFP CACT acting national manager Stefan Jerga said the case highlighted the AFP’s determination to inflict maximum damage on the criminal environment.
“If a child sex predator is profiting from — or involves their property in — their criminal activity, their home, vehicle, bank accounts and other assets are at risk of being restrained and confiscated,’’ he said.
“Our team of investigators, litigators and forensic accountants are highly skilled at what they do and are relentless and determined in their pursuit for justice.
“This investigation shows what can be achieved when our experienced criminal investigators unite with our equally skilled CACT investigators and litigators.Describing the “ventures” Loyson was involved in as “abhorrent”, AFP Assistant Commissioner Eastern Command Justine Gough said exposing anonymous online offenders and putting them in jail was what drove the team.
“The investigation started with a clue that someone, somewhere, was trying to advertise the
exploitation of children for profit,’’ she said.
“Thanks to the tenacious work of the Sydney child protection team, a man has now been
convicted for trading in the exploitation of children, and we have taken steps to take back the
money he made from this abhorrent venture.
“Every image being shared and bought on this website was of a child being abused. Bringing
these offenders from online anonymity to jail time is what drives the AFP to keep children
safe.”
Led by the AFP, the CACT brings together the resources and expertise of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commissioner, the ATO, AUSTRAC, and Australian Border Force with the agencies working together to trace, restrain and confiscate criminal assets.
The funds from the confiscated assets are redirected by the federal government towards crime prevention, law enforcement and other community initiatives.