Sacked Port Melbourne real estate agent Paul Torok avoids jail for child abuse material sex charges

The traumatised victims of a disgraced Melbourne real estate agent and child sex fiend say they feel ashamed, used and broken.

Paul Torok pleaded guilty to distributing child abuse material. LinkedIn.

An ex-Melbourne real estate agent who swapped vile child abuse material while in a twisted relationship with former Reclink Chairman David O’Halloran has avoided a jail term.

Paul Torok, 51, was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday to a two-year community correction order after pleading guilty to child abuse material charges.

Torok met his then 16-year-old victim via social media app Skout and introduced her to O’Halloran in November 2019.

Torok messaged O’Halloran asking if he wanted to have a threesome with the Melbourne schoolgirl.

“I have a proposition,” Torok said.

“Go ahead,” O’Halloran replied.

“I have a friend who want (sic) to be with two men. But she’s young,” Torok said.

“The younger the better,” O’Halloran replied.

“I like very young (wink). I’m already f***ing a 16 yo.”

“Wow!!,” Torok responded.

Torok sent an image of the child to O’Halloran and asked his associate to send an image in return.

“May I have one of you. She likes older men,” Torok said.

Torok picked the victim up from near her school and drove her to O’Halloran’s home where they had sex in late-2019.

The men filmed themselves having sex with the victim while she was still wearing her school uniform, the court was told.

Torok and O’Halloran then shared the vile material between themselves and others including a Kik Messenger sicko ring.

Police seized evidence linking the pair after raiding O’Halloran’s St Kilda home in August last year.

Investigators raided the Port Melbourne home Torok shared with his wife and young daughter in September last year.

Torok was sacked by Upside Realty after his offending was publicised.

Torok kept his head down while his victim and her parents’ victim impact statements were read to the court.

“I woke up hoping it was a nightmare …,” the father said.

“I just cannot comprehend what our daughter went through alone, ashamed and used, the thoughts create an anger in me … thinking of the violation of innocence.”

The victim said she felt “frustration” after falling into Torok’s “manipulation trap”.

“I have suffered trauma … I am also suffering from anxiety … I cannot come to terms with myself how I was able to allow this to happen to my body,” the victim said.

The victim’s mother read her emotion charged statement to the court.

“Nothing can heal how broken I am inside …,” the mother tearfully told the court.

“(I feel) endless fear (for my daughter) … I feel how my daughter was trafficked and used as nothing but a sexual tool … I worry every day that the time will come when some other paedophile has watched it (the vile video) and will recognise my daughter …

“You have destroyed what trust I had in the world and what you did is so inexcusable I will live with the pain and the Judgement and will always worry about my daughter until the day I die.”

The mother also thanked the detectives for saving her daughter’s life.

The prosecution submitted Torok and O’Halloran were “predators”.

“He’s (Torok) engaged in this behaviour for his own gratification,” the prosecutor submitted.

Dermot Dann QC, for Torok, said his client engaged in an “unorthodox and extravagant” lifestyle.

The court heard Torok completed a teaching degree after graduating from Wesley College.

Torok travelled and worked in Japan before returning to Melbourne and working as a drama teacher at Haileybury Keysborough.

Torok returned to Japan but later came back to Haileybury where he worked until 2015, the court was told.

Torok then embarked on a real estate career first with Hocking Stuart and most recently with Upside Realty.

David O'Halloran.

However, an Upside representative confirmed Torok was no longer employed at the company following an internal investigation.

Furthermore, the defence submitted Torok and his family had to relocate following the “backlash” which resulted from publicity.

Mr Dann said his client had “excellent prospects of rehabilitation” and asked the court to take into account “extra-curricular punishment”.

Mr Dann also submitted portions of the victim’s victim impact statement pertaining to “trafficking” could not be taken into account.

Magistrate Greg McNamara said Torok was an “intelligent” man who “knew what he was doing”.

Former Reclink boss O’Halloran beat a heftier jail term after Magistrate McNamara sentenced the fiend in April to a minimum nine-month jail term.

O’Halloran was caught with two storage devices which contained more than 100 child abuse files including vile material which depicted sadism and bestiality.

The court was told some of the child abuse images came with vile captions including “let’s play rape again daddy. I promise I’ll fight harder this time”.

O’Halloran, whose former charity helped many people including those with disabilities, shared a vile video of a girl aged 8-10 with a “clear intellectual disability” performing a lewd act.

O’Halloran later sent files of a victim performing sexual acts after an associate asked if he had any good videos.

The long-term Reclink member is also associated with Rotary Club.

O’Halloran was bailed after immediately appealing his sentence with the appeal to be heard at the County Court later this year.

Torok was made a registered sex offender for 15 years.

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