Kenneth Archer fronts court over vile child abuse material

A Melbourne man with a long and successful teaching career engaged in a father-son roleplay during online discussions with young men about incestuous sexual activity with children.

Retired teacher Kenneth Archer was busted with hundreds of child abuse images and sexualised online chats with six adults.

A school teacher busted with child abuse material engaged in a father-son role play during sexual fantasies with adult males as he expressed his desire to drug and rape children.

Kenneth Archer, 65, fronted the County Court on Friday on charges of possessing and transmitting child abuse material that Judge Krista Breckweg described as “highly sexualised, depraved and abhorrent”.

He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment but will be released on a recognizance release order after serving 20 months to be of good behaviour for three years.

Judge Breckweg said in his text communications with six adults, Archer expressed his desire to drug, rape and torture male children as young as four years old, often playing the role of a father.

He also exchanged child abuse material with young male adults. During one conversation, he played the role of a 13-year-old boy’s dad and expressed his desire to drug, tied up and rape his son.

Former teacher Kenneth Archer engaged in highly sexualised online conversations with six adults who he also sent child abuse materials to.

That conversation went on for four hours, Judge Breckweg said.

Police seized several of his electronic devices on May 11, 2023 and found 258 child abuse material and 12 videos containing abhorrent depictions of children with a focus on cannibalism and cruelty.

“Text based and written child abuse material was also located in his laptop in the form of short stories which contained depictions of child sexual abuse and children being tortured, cooked and eaten,” Judge Breckweg said.

In 2017, Archer returned to Melbourne after teaching in China to care for his cancer-stricken mother and retired in 2023 after charges were laid.

It’s unclear where in Victoria Archer worked as a teacher.

“The child abuse materials were highly sexualised, depraved and abhorrent and your communications were clearly for your sexual gratification,” the judge said.

Despite pleading guilty and having no priors, she said deterrence and denunciation especially in cases of sexual exploitation of children must loom large.