Gold Coast man, 40, pleads guilty to child abuse charges

A Gold Coast man accused of making child abuse material involving his own child has been brought back before the courts. Read what happened here.

A former Gold Coast junior sports coach has pleaded guilty to making child abuse material involving his own and a female partner’s children.

The 40-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, faced Southport District Court on Tuesday.

He pleaded guilty to 15 charges including making child exploitation material, distributing child exploitation material, indecent treatment of a child under 12, and grooming a child under 12.

The court was told the offending occurred between August 30, 2019 and June 7, 2020.

The Gold Coast man was first charged with taking photographs of his and his co-accused’s young children in June that same year.

It was reported at the time that the pair allegedly sent more than 40,000 messages with explicit images of children and discussed sexual “fantasies” involving their own children.

The man also pleaded guilty to exposing his own child to sexual material and trying to get his co-accused to make child abuse files in New South Wales.

He showed little emotion as the charges were read to the court, saying only, “Guilty, Your Honour” in response to each one.

His co-accused who also cannot be identified, is also charged with making child exploitation material.

Both were due to be sentenced on January 25, but defence lawyer Ashkan Tai asked on Tuesday that the matter instead be pushed back by several months.

He said his firm had only recently taken on the matter and needed more time to get his clients’ medical reports and other material.

The man will now be remanded in custody until his matter proceeds to sentence later this year.