Melbourne man fronts court for transmitting child abuse material

Donning a bra, dress and a wig, a Melbourne man sent revolting child abuse materials to sex workers and requested they sexually abuse his daughter.

A Melbourne father has admitted contacting sex workers and invited them home to sexually abuse his daughter.

A grub father pestered sex workers with child abuse material and even invited them home to sexually abuse his daughter, prompting them to contact police, a court has heard

The man, who has interim name suppression, pleaded guilty in the County Court in Melbourne on Wednesday to six charges of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse and single charges of possessing child abuse material and possessing methamphetamine.

The court heard that he donned a bra, dress and a wig while contacting the sex workers from a squalid shed at the back of his Melbourne house between May and July 2022.

Police seized a mobile phone, a laptop, a hard drive and a USB from his home in August 2022 and found 5216 child abuse images.

Prosecutor Sean Hogan said on May 8, 2022 the man contacted a sex worker who had advertised her services on the dating site Locanto, and said he’d like to include his 10-year-old daughter in the proposed sexual activity.

She immediately ended the phone call and the man then sent a series of images by text depicting a female child under 10, who he claimed was his daughter, performing oral sex on a male.

Sex workers were so disgusted about child abuse material a Melbourne man sent to them that they contacted police.

The next day, he continued to send her text messages despite her requesting on multiple occasions that he stop contacting her. Mr Hogan said the man then sent a video of a child engaged in a sexual activity and his conduct resulted in her becoming concerned for the child’s welfare.

The sex workers’ friends reported the matter to police.

On June 30, 2022 Mr Hogan said the man started communicating with a person, sent her child abuse material, and said he was engaged in sexual activity with his daughter. The person became distressed and advised him that police had been notified.

On July 19, 2022 the man sent five text-based child abuse material to a sex worker who expressed disgust at his messages and said she’d call police. He pleaded with her not to report him to police.

Mr Hogan said the man installed an encrypted private social networking messenger application and on August 24, 2022 he sent multiple lewd messages to a person.

In those messages, the man said “I am proud to call myself a paedophile, sharing the joys of sex with any child is my mission statement. I am hoping to find a younger woman and have kids with her. I can be relied upon with all sorts of help regarding sex with kids. I am an expert at grooming little kids into sex addicts.”

Police found more than 5000 images of child abuse material in a Melbourne man’s electronic devices.

The man’s lawyer, Zoe Broughton, said her client embarked upon a path of self-destruction with his offending while housebound due to a stroke he had in February 2022.

“This is really repulsive behaviour by someone who seemed to be set on a path of complete destruction. It’s such inexplicable offending that he himself when in a confined prison environment has attempted to understand how on earth he could have behaved in a way that he behaved,” she said.

Ms Broughton advocated for a sentence where he could be released on a reconnaisance order given his health, genuine remorse, and no previous conviction.

The man will be sentenced at a later date.