Two Top End men arrested over alleged possession of child abuse material solicited overseas

Two greater Darwin men – one from the northern suburbs, the other from Palmerston – have been charged with involvement in the Philippines’ child abuse industry. One of the men appeared in court on Wednesday.

Two Top End men have been charged with unrelated counts of possessing ‘abhorrent’ child abuse materials. Photo: iStock

A Palmerston man has appeared in court charged with using a variety of online platforms to solicit child exploitation material from the Philippines.

The 66-year-old Durack man, who cannot be named, appeared in Darwin Local Court via audiovisual link after his arrest last Wednesday.

The man has been charged with four commonwealth offences: two counts of possessing child abuse material and one count each of accessing child abuse material and grooming a person to make it easier to engage in sexual activity with a child outside Australia.

The commonwealth prosecutor told the court during the defendant’s bail application members of the Northern Territory Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (NT JACET) were still combing the man’s online accounts for evidence of alleged solicitation of child abuse material.

They included cloud storage platform Cubbit, and messaging/video platforms WhatsApp and Skype.

At least one child exploitation material file was allegedly recovered from a Skype account, but NT JACET officers were yet to gain access to two other Skype accounts.

The prosecutor told the court she held concerns the defendant would be able to delete evidence if granted bail.

A 66-year-old Durack man appeared in Darwin Local Court on Wednesday charged with commonwealth child abuse material offences. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The defendant’s Legal Aid solicitor told the court the integrity of the investigation needed to be balanced with his client’s rights – he said the defendant had not had the opportunity behind bars to engage legal representation or even make a phone call.

Judge Stephen Geary adjourned the charges to December 17, indicating the defendant was a good chance of being granted bail on that date.

In a statement, Australian Federal Police said the defendant came to the attention of NT JACET via an online dating profile attempting to solicit child abuse material from a mother and young child in a foreign country.

The AFP received the report in October and carried out a search warrant of his home on November 13, where he was arrested and charged after child abuse material was allegedly found on his electronic devices.

In an unrelated incident, a 37-year old Karama man was also charged by NT JACET officers after allegedly sending money to a known child exploiter in the Philippines.

This tip-off led AFP investigators to raid his home, allegedly finding child abuse material on an electronic device.

He was charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service and three counts of using a carriage service to access child abuse material.

He appeared at Darwin Local Court on November 15 and was remanded in custody to return to court on Friday.

Speaking generally, NT Police Detective Sergeant Duane Commander said people who viewed child abuse material were just as culpable as those who made it.

“Anyone who views this abhorrent material is committing a serious crime and will face the full force of the law,“ he said.

“Our priority is to protect vulnerable children and hold offenders accountable for their actions.”

Originally published as Two Top End men arrested over alleged possession of child abuse material solicited overseas