Bendigo man Darryl Peace, 57, to stand trial on 275 child abuse material charges

A Bendigo man will fight more than 200 charges relating to the possession of child abuse material and “encouraging discussions of bestiality” at trial later this year.

Darryl Peace, 57, outside Bendigo Magistrates' Court charged with more than 250 child abuse material related offences.

An accused Bendigo pedophile will fight more than 200 child abuse possession charges after he was busted as part of a major police operation.

Darryl Peace, 57, pleaded not guilty at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court to 275 charges, relating to possessing child abuse and bestiality material.

Media was previously suppressed from publishing details on the case for 12 months while police completed their investigation.

Mr Peace was charged on January 12 last year after a raid allegedly revealed electronic devices containing child abuse material.

Darryl Peace, 57, outside Bendigo Magistrates' Court charged with more than 250 child abuse material related offences.

Additional charges were laid more than a year later after a long running investigation by the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team, a combination of Federal and Victoria police sex crime detectives.

The charges relate to accessing and transmitting child abuse material during a three-year period between January 2021 and the end of 2023.

Police will also allege he was “encouraging the discussion of bestiality” on several occasions.

Police also allegedly seized evidence of text based conversations where Mr Peace was “discussing and encouraging” the exploitation of children and animals in the same conversations.

He was also charged with “encouraging text based child exploitation from the other chat participant”.

Mr Peace remains on bail ahead of a trial date at the County Court in March after pleading not guilty to all charges levelled against him.