Former Victoria Police Purana Taskforce detective Richard Brown charged with share intimate image

A decorated cop who helped dismantle Melbourne’s violent underbelly illegally shared nudes in a sordid swingers sex scandal.

Former Purana Taskforce detective Richard Brown has been charged with distribute intimate image. Supplied

A highly decorated former Victoria Police detective who helped bring down a “violent criminal” during the bloody era of Melbourne’s gangland war has been implicated in a sordid swingers sex pic scandal.

Richard Brown, 52, fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with intentionally distribute intimate image.

Brown, a decorated former Purana Taskforce detective, met his victim via dating website Zoosk in 2019.

The court heard Brown, who has accepted the offending took place, went on three dates with the woman before the twosome decided to give swingers website Red Hot Pie a shake.

The woman posted images of herself to use in a profile for the sordid sex hook-up site, the court was told.

The victim also shared intimate photos with Brown but under the “parameters” he not share those images.

The woman later asked Brown to delete those images.

Brown and the woman also discussed which couples they wanted to meet on Red Hot Pie and who they wanted to share intimate and naked images with.

The defence submitted Brown and the woman also discussed meeting a “gentleman” to have sex with at a motel in Melbourne’s east.

“Red Hot Pie … it’s not a dating website … it’s a website for people to meet, swingers or people if they want to bring a third or a fourth into the equation,” the defence submitted.

“They met, they made a decision to go on this website (Red Hot Pie) …

“They had a sorting system of getting past the people who might randomly inquire (about meeting) than to those who they might have a genuine connection with …”

Brown went on swingers sex site Red Hot Pie.

The woman eventually pulled her images from Red Hot Pie and denied Brown’s request for her to repost the images, the court was told.

Brown and the woman also had a “three-way” Kik Messenger chat with another woman named ‘Sarah’.

The court heard Brown shared “identifiable” intimate images of the woman with Sarah after the victim had left the chat.

The defence submitted the matter has a “torturous and drawn out nature” because Brown was charged with indecent assault in 2019.

Brown was accused of indecent offences towards a former police colleague in 2005. He was found not guilty on all charges.

The court heard Brown went through two aborted County Court trials before a jury eventually acquitted the decorated officer in December last year.

Brown’s intimate image offending was then remitted back to the magistrates’ court which accounted for the long delay in finalising the matter.

The court heard Brown has been “effectively retired from Victoria Police”.

The defence submitted Brown was a former Purana Taskforce detective who “apprehended a violent criminal” during the bloody era of Melbourne’s gangland war.

The court heard Brown received a divisional commendation in 2003 but a harrowing personal tragedy sent his life on a downward spiral.

“(Brown) was a full-time detective working long and uncertain hours …,” the defence submitted.

“Unfortunately, back then, there was a drinking culture (at Victoria Police) … he (Brown) was drinking heavily …

“He’s effectively been permanently retired from Victoria Police … he hasn’t worked for Victoria Police since he’s been charged …”

The prosecution submitted Brown’s occupation as a cop led to the victim placing trust in Brown “because of the nature of his profession and his background and his nature”.

The matter was adjourned so the prosecution could obtain a victim statement.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington indicated she will hand Brown a 12-month good behaviour bond without conviction when the matter is finalised.