Benjamin Gibbs pleads guilty to multiple child pornography offences
A US citizen living in Melbourne kept his university job — and even scored a reference from his boss — after he was caught swapping vile child sex abuse material among a social media pedo ring brought down by an FBI sting.
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A US citizen living in Melbourne kept his Open Universities job even after admitting sharing vile child abuse material among a social media paedophile ring.
Benjamin Gibbs, 31, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Wednesday to multiple child sexual abuse charges.
Gibbs was nabbed after local authorities received a tip-off from the FBI Child Exploitation Force that an “Australian citizen” was sharing child pornography via social media app KiK.
An online undercover FBI operative discovered Gibbs was sharing the vile material before referring him to Australian Federal Police.
Australian Federal Police Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team officers raided Gibbs’ Caulfield home on August 7 last year.
Investigators seized evidence including Gibbs’ Samsung Galaxy phone and a pair of Star Wars boxer shorts.
Police examined Gibbs’ phone and found he had shared vile videos and images to dozens of other KiK users including ‘dcjohn1996’, ‘AKG’ and ‘waridap’ between July 24 and the day of his arrest.
Gibbs, under the username ‘ShaThiefBen’, also shared material in secret paedophile chat groups ‘Dark Webbers and ‘Priv2’.
Gibbs, a member of Melbourne’s tight-knit orthodox Jewish community, also swapped vile and lewd messages with the other online paedophiles.
Investigators found 383 vile images and videos on Gibbs’ phone including material depicting penetration, sadism, humiliation and torture.
Some of the material was Anime or cartoons depicting child pornography.
Gibbs made a “no comment” interview with police before he was charged with multiple child sex offences including use a carriage service to transmit child pornography material.
Gibbs was remanded until he was granted bail on August 9.
He walked straight back into his Open Universities Australia marketing role which he had held since 2017.
Gibbs’ matter resolved when he pleaded guilty to four child sex abuse charges on January 29 this year.
Not only did Gibbs retain his job — a position he still held while appearing at this week’s plea hearing — but his Open Universities boss Anand Rego wrote a letter to the court on his behalf.
Gibbs grew up in an ultra-orthodox Jewish family in Arizona before moving to Florida.
He came to Australia in 2010 to study business at RMIT.
Gibbs became a permanent resident after settling into Melbourne’s tight-knit Jewish community.
Gibbs’ lawyer said the short duration of his offending should be considered.
Judge Susan Pullen said Gibbs put in “plenty of work” committing his “deviant” behaviour.
Gibbs’ lawyer also submitted her client would find prison more onerous as his family lived in the US and they would not be able to visit him weekly.
However, Judge Pullen said Gibbs was “master of his own destiny”.
“He’s an intelligent man,” she said.
“I have no doubt he would have been aware of the dangers … and the risk of jail.”
Gibbs, who appeared in person, was remanded for further plea and sentencing on August 27.
He could be deported once his jail sentence is complete.
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