Queensland paedophiles including Dennis Ferguson, Douglas Brian Jackway and Robert John Fardon
These are some of Queensland’s worst convicted paedophiles, men who committed horrendous sexual crimes against children. Warning: Graphic
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They are some of Queensland’s worst offenders who leave permanent scars on their victims.
These are some of the state’s convicted paedophiles, men who committed horrendous sexual crimes against children.
In 2021 more than 8000 sexual offences – including rape, child sex offences, sexual assault, indecent exposure and other offences – were reported in Queensland.
According to 2021 Queensland Crime Statistics, the South Brisbane police district had the highest number of sexual offences reported with 945.
These are some of Queensland’s convicted paedophiles and the shocking stories behind how they ended up behind bars.
BRIAN JOHN DAPHNEY
The sex offender who was living rough on the streets breached his lifelong reporting requirements and narrowly avoided being returned to jail on December 13, 2021.
Daphney was facing charges of failing to comply with his sexual offender reporting requirements four times in as many months between September to December in 2021.
He pleaded guilty to the four charges from the dock at Townsville Magistrates Court in December 2021.
Police prosecutor Mark Fenlon told the court Daphney, had a previous breach of his lifelong requirements as a reportable offender under the Child Protection Act, including one from May 2020.
Daphney was ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.
In 2013 Daphney, then 35, was released after serving a 15-year jail sentence for the heinous rape of a four-year-old girl.
Justice Anthe Philippides released Daphney on August 8, 2013 on a four-year supervised release order, despite saying she was unsure whether the order would provide adequate protection for the community.
Daphney was 19 when he broke into a Heatley home in November 1997 to steal money, but ended up sodomising a four-year-old girl.
EDWARD FRANCIS GRAVEUR
Queensland’s highest court in July 2012 tripled the amount of criminal compensation granted to one of four boys molested by a notorious paedophile.
The Court of Appeal in Brisbane ordered Edward Francis Graveur, then 64, pay his victim, identifiable only as JS, the maximum amount of compensation allowed for horrific sex abuse committed in 2005.
The boy was awarded only $25,500 compensation by a District Court judge in December 2011, but the Court of Appeal increased that order to one of $75,000.
Graveur, then aged 57, was jailed for 12 years in May 2005 sexually abusing four young boys and distributing their images via the internet.
Graveur pleaded guilty to 10 charges of indecent dealing and maintaining sexual relationships with the boys, then aged under 16, and for taking and distributing indecent photos of boys.
The Court of Appeal, in a 10-page written decision, granted JS’s litigation guardian, “JT”, leave to appeal the amount of criminal compensation granted and substituted it with an order of $75,000.
The court, comprising Justices John Muir, Hugh Fraser and Robert Gotterson, said it was impossible to comprehend a worse case of abuse and that it was appropriate to award JS the maximum amount allowed under the Queensland Criminal Offence Victims Act 1995.
Justice Muir said: “The primary judge’s finding that … one cannot imagine a case involving worse abuse than this, nor a more significant serious deleterious effect upon a young man’s future life … was not contested (by Graveur or the Queensland Attorney-General).’’
In September 2016 Graveur was released from jail.
Speaking in the Brisbane Supreme Court at the time, his counsel agreed he posed a serious danger to the community.
A minimum 10-year supervision order was imposed to moderate the threat of his reoffending.
One condition on his supervisory order included no contact with children, directly or via phone or internet, without written permission to do so.
His internet use must be strictly monitored and he must provide passwords to authorities.
Graveur, who was described as articulate and intelligent, must take medication that reduces his risk to the community.
KEVIN MICHAEL LOUDON
Released from a Queensland prison in 2019, aged 55, Loudon was subject to a supervision until March 18, 2029.
Between 1985 and 2005, he was convicted of serious sexual offences, including rape, carnal knowledge and gross indecency against boys and girls between the ages of eight and 15.
He was released from custody in June 2007 subject to a supervision order but, in October 2009, contravened the order by travelling from Townsville to Cairns without permission.
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SIMON BLAIR VIZZARD
Released from a Queensland prison in 2017, then aged 44, Vizzard was subject to a supervision order.
He had served four years’ jail for sexual offences including sodomy committed against three young boys.
He has also served part of a 10-year sentence in Mexico for sexual offences against boys aged under 12.
JASON DAVID BROOKER
Brooker was sentenced to 13 years’ jail in Toowoomba District Court in 2017 for “depraved” sex abuse of 22 girls as young as 11 over 10 years
Then aged 49, he pleaded guilty to 57 charges, including maintaining a relationship with a child under 16, carnal knowledge, indecent treatment and making and possessing child exploitation material.
ROBERT JOHN FARDON
Authorities admitted in March 2022 they did not know where one of Queensland’s most notorious rapists was living for a “lengthy period” of the year despite him being subject to supervision.
Vile sex offender Robert John Fardon, who spent 30 years behind bars until his release in 2019, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on March 23 after being arrested by police.
Fardon, whose horrifying crimes include the rape of a 12-year-old at gunpoint, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with reporting conditions and one count of unlicensed driving.
The court heard police intercepted Fardon driving in Wacol on January 17 without a licence which had been demerit points suspended.
When asked why he was driving without a licence Fardon told police “because I can”.
Police prosecutor Sen Sgt Wade Domagala said police established Fardon had been living on the streets since moving out of a hotel on December 31 and not informing authorities.
Magistrate Robbie Davies said it was extremely important for authorities to know where Fardon was living given his background of serious sexual offending.
“The police need to know where these people live so they can be located at an instant if there’s an allegation,” he said.
He opted to fine Fardon $650 and disqualify him from driving for six months. Convictions were recorded.
In 1967 Fardon, then 18, pleaded guilty to attempted carnal knowledge of a girl under 10 and received a good behaviour bond.
In 1978 he raped a 12-year-old girl at gun point and beat her sister. He fled to the Northern Territory on bail but was recaptured.
He will remain a reportable offender until 2034 when he can apply to the court to review the order.
DOUGLAS BRIAN JACKWAY
Convicted paedophile Douglas Jackway spent 25 years behind bars for the serious sexual assault of two children, a boy and a girl in the 1990s.
He was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 1995 for abducting a boy, dragging him from his bike, driving him to an area of mangroves and raping him in Gladstone.
In 2003 he was released from jail and sent back in 2005 for raping a girl aged between nine and 10 in 1991.
The Supreme Court ruled in December 2020 that Jackway was ready to be released due to the help of rehabilitation programs and treatment.
He was released from Brisbane Correctional Centre and moved to the Wacol precinct where sex offenders are housed.
A decision handed down by the Supreme Court said he was being released from prison on a strict 15-year supervision order that could be relaxed over time.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAVIDSON
The Fraser Coast masseur was found guilty of raping, sexually assaulting and indecently treating massage clients over a 12-year period was jailed for four years in 2021.
Davidson was found guilty of seven counts of rape, 30 sexual assault offences and three counts of indecently treating a child, 15, between 2003 and 2015.
Two of the victims were young people, one girl who was digitally raped and indecently treated by Davidson.
He was sentenced to four years’ jail for the seven rape offences and concurrent sentences of three years’ jail for the sexual assaults and 18 months for the indecent treatment of a child offences.
The four-year jail term was added onto the five and a half year sentence he has been serving since 2018 for similar offences.
DENNIS FERGUSON
The long time child sex offender was serving time in Long Bay jail in the 1980s when he had planned to kidnap three children of a fellow inmate.
After his release, Ferguson and his male lover went to stay with the children’s uncle in Sydney where the pair abducted the inmate’s daughter, aged six, and sons aged seven and eight.
The pair flew to Brisbane with the children.
Police found them the following night at a motel in Ascot where Ferguson was found naked alongside the little girl, who was on a bed with no clothes on.
Ferguson was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
He was released in 2004 and forced to repeatedly move after neighbours and the media identified his new location.
In 2012 he was found dead in a Sydney unit.
GREGORY DAVID KYNUNA
Gregory Kynuna was convicted of his first sexual assault offences in 1987 after he entered a Cairns hostel where young girls were staying for a school excursion.
Court documents show he was seen to touch a number of 10-year-old girls around their genitalia through the sheets.
He was sentenced to an effective sentence of three years and 18 months imprisonment.
In 2004, Kynuna was sentenced to six years imprisonment for rape after he approached a six-year-old boy in the street near his home.
He ripped a hole in the child’s bathing suit and sexually assaulted the boy.
MARK NEWTON & PETER TRUONG
American-born Mark Newton was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2012 after he and his long-term boyfriend from Cairns Peter Truong sexually abused their”adopted” son.
The pair had paid a Russian woman $8,000 to be their surrogate in 2005.
Newton pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sexually exploit a minor and conspiracy to possess child pornography before southern District of Indiana US District Court Judge Sarah Barker in 2013. Truong was sentenced to 30 years behind bars in 2013 after he entered guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and conspiracy to possess child pornography.
Across six years the couple had travelled to the US, New Zealand, France and Germany and offered the boy for sex with at least eight different men.
The offending was filmed on cameras and uploaded to an international syndicate.
When the couple were visiting family in the US, Queensland Police searched their home in Cairns and found enough evidence to alert their American counterparts who took the boy into custody.
DYLAN BARRY PHILLIP BUCKINGHAM
Morayfield Mechanic Dylan Buckingham was in March 2021 found guilty at Brisbane District Court by a jury of three counts of rape, maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child and four counts of indecent treatment of a child in March.
Buckingham, who was 22 at the age of the offending from August 2016 to February 2017, repeatedly abused an 11-year-old girl, touching her inappropriately and on one occasion took her into his bedroom and raped her.
He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years’ jail.
LEVI JAMES WILSHIRE
Lockyer Valley man Levi Wilshire was in October 2021 sentenced to eight years’ jail after he raped a 12-year-old girl three times in two days while also indecently treating her.
The court heard the girl told him to stop and tried to push him off her.
The first group of offending involved orally and vaginally raping the girl, telling her, “You have a sexy body”, the court was told.
The then 29-year-old pleaded guilty at the Ipswich District Court to three counts of rape and one count of indecent treatment of a child.
Judge Orazio Rinaudo sentenced Wilshire to eight years’ jail, with parole-eligibility set at June 18, 2023.
WEES NAWIA
A Cairns father who used social media to prey on 27 child victims had abused a 13-year-old boy and taken a 13-year-old girl’s virginity.
The Cairns District Court sentenced Wees Nawia in February 2019 to 10.5 years jail after he pleaded guilty to 56 grooming and child sex offences.
The father of two used Facebook to persistently engage in sexual communication with boys and girls aged between 11 and 16 years over 10 months in 2015.
The court heard the 31 year old used coercion, emotional blackmail and passive threats.
His shocking crimes, which included sodomising a 13-year-old boy and taking a young girl’s virginity in a shopping centre car park, were revealed.
Crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton labelled Nawia’s behaviour as “out of control” and the worst of this type of offending.
The court heard that at the height of his offending Nawia was speaking to 24 different victim children at the same time.
Judge Dean Morzone said this was an appropriate case to not set a parole eligibility date.
GEOFFREY ROBERT DOBBS
A paedophile who molested 62 girls was in August 2020 sentenced to remain in jail indefinitely after being deemed unworthy of release.
Brisbane District Court Judge Kerry O’Brien ruled Geoffrey Robert Dobbs, then 57, was still a serious danger to the community.
Dobbs was jailed indefinitely in 2003 for crimes committed over 30 years that included filming himself having sex with girls as young as nine.
In July 2020, he pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court to 116 child-sex offences, including unlawful carnal knowledge and recording indecent visual images.
The former Telstra worker wired his home to secretly video his victims and abused his position as a church and youth group leader to prey on children aged between one and 15.
He was caught only when he left a video camera jammed by a tape for repair with a shop in Melbourne in September 1999.
His indefinite detention underwent a periodic review in August 2020 in the District Court in Brisbane.
Prosecutor Todd Fuller said that after undergoing a 350-hour sexual offender treatment program in jail a final report found Dobbs was unable to engage in some of the activities, and he remained a serious danger to the community.
“The observations … in the final report is that he needs further treatment and at times fails to have empathy for the victims or some insight,” Mr Fuller told the court.
The final report also said that if Dobbs were to be released, he should not have access to girls, only use a computer under supervision, possess no pornographic material and live in approved accommodation, the court heard.
JOHN WILLIAM SPENCER
A jury took only one hour in May 2021 to reach a guilty verdict in the trial of a Gympie man charged with multiple child sex offences, including rape.
John William Spencer will spend a minimum of two years behind bars after being convicted of two counts of rape and five counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16 and in his care at the time.
The then 61-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison but will be eligible for parole halfway through his sentence.
Following the guilty verdict, Spencer still maintained his innocence, simply stating “I’m not guilty.”
When the verdict was announced to the courtroom, one of Spencer’s supporters walked outside and screamed.
Before his sentence was read out, the same group of people approached him in the dock, took him by the hands and whispered words of encouragement to him before being asked to sit in the gallery.
Crown Prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher said in relation to Spencer’s crimes, he was opportunistic at times, and other times his actions were premeditated.
She also said both of his young victims are in counselling as a result of the assaults, and Spencer’s actions demonstrated a violation of trust.
“He showed no remorse for his offending,” she said.
STEPHEN FREDERICK KOSTER
A former Queensland schoolteacher repeatedly sexually assaulted a young boy up until his teen years, at times offering money when he performed the vile acts, a court was told in August 2022.
Stephen Frederick Koster’s shameful acts were revealed after the 70-year-old ex-teacher pleaded guilty to a raft of offences committed against the young boy.
He was charged with maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, sexual assault and multiple counts of indecent treatment of children.
Brisbane District Court was told Koster had already been convicted in 2003 and 2012 for similar historic offences before the assaults on the young boy.
The victim was aged between eight and 16 during the offending period.
Judge Paul Smith said Koster repeatedly performed oral sex on the boy, at times offering him money.
On one occasion, Koster asked the boy if he had ever seen a man ejaculate, the court was told.
“He was curious, (and) you ejaculated in front of him,” Judge Smith said.
“It is serious offending.
“(The victim) was young, it was continuous, there was a breach of trust and an element of grooming, as it was protracted.”
The court was told none of the acts involved penetration or violence.
Koster was diagnosed with pedophilic disorder and had “recurrent and intense” fantasies towards children aged under 13 from an early age.
“This sexual orientation resulted in depression and heavy drinking,” Judge Smith said.
Koster had also not reoffended in 30 years.
He received a head sentence of four and a half years’ jail, to be suspended after serving 15 months behind bars.
WILFRED MENTINK
In November 2018, notorious paedophile and former Brisbane teacher Wilfred Mentink was sentenced to nine months jail, to be suspended after serving four months, after a District Court jury found him guilty of molesting a student in the 1990s at a school camp.
He has previously been jailed for six years after pleading guilty to other child sex charges.
Mentink, who represented himself at the trial and the bail hearing in January 2018, described one witness as being “off with the fairies” and said the jury did not hear the full story.
“I was severely restricted … in terms of the evidence that could be induced,” he said.
“A whole lot of evidence that could have been before the jury, simply was never put.”
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