Joshua Baird: Swan Hill paedophile jailed over grooming 36 kids
A Swan Hill paedophile who preyed on vulnerable children on social media, encouraging them to send sexually explicit images, has been jailed.
Mildura
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A Swan Hill paedophile who groomed 36 children online, encouraging them to send him sexually explicit images, has been jailed for five years.
Joshua Baird, 26, earlier pleaded guilty to 56 charges related to grooming and child porn and was placed on the sex offender’s list for life in Mildura’s County Court on Monday.
Baird was caught in October 2019 when a Canadian mother found a series of conversations between her 14-year-old daughter and a username ‘Bairdy888’ on Instagram, Snapchat and the messenger app kik.
She took about 600 screenshots of the conversations, which included multiple requests for explicit photos, explicit and videos photos of ‘Bairdy888’, child and adult pornography and an offer by ‘Bairdy888’ to host the victim in Australia.
She also sent the screenshots to Canadian police.
Over a three-month police investigation, it was found ‘Bairdy888’ was Joshua Baird of Swan Hill.
The investigation was forwarded to the Victorian Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team in early 2020 and on January 30 police raided Baird’s Swan Hill home.
A disgusting trail of conversations dating back to December 2016 was found on Baird’s phone.
Police uncovered conversations between Baird and the 36 children between the ages of 10.
Other conversations were between Baird and adults where he solicited child porn and role-played child abuse and incest scenarios with them.
An extensive collection of child porn was also found on Baird’s phone.
Baird sent and received child porn from many of the children he groomed and acknowledged the what he was doing was wrong but that it aroused him.
Baird also told his victims that he didn’t care what age they were as long as they were of an illegal age.
He said the youngest he was interested in was 16 but that he had stopped caring how young his victims were.
Baird was arrested and charged with 56 matters relating to child porn.
Baird pleaded guilty at a committal mention in September 2020 and remained on bail since he was charged.
He grew up in Swan Hill and worked in a funeral home until he was fired when his offending came to light.
A forensic psychiatrist suggested Baird was a low-moderate risk of reoffending.
Baird’s mother was present in the court for the sentencing and broke down in tears as Judge Gucciardo handed down his sentence.
Judge Frank Gucciardo allowed her to say a goodbye to her son, but did not allow her to touch him. Baird reassured his mother.
jack.patterson@news.com.au
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