Travis Loughnan actively participated in groups on a messaging app that promoted child abuse material
A registered Mildura sex offender traded depraved child abuse material via a mobile phone messaging app from his mum’s house.
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A Mildura sex offender created, distributed, promoted and accessed child abuse material from his mobile phone at his mother’s house, a court has heard.
Travis Loughnan, 37, joined disgusting groups on a messaging app that contained other people sharing and creating child abuse material.
The County Court heard graphic details of the content that was shared within these on Wednesday at Loughnan’s plea hearing.
Loughnan had pleaded guilty to two counts of using a carriage service to distribute child abuse material, one count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, and one count of producing child abuse material for use through a carriage service.
The last charge was related to a depraved, graphic story Loughnan wrote depicting a sexual relationship between a father and his young daughter.
The court heard Loughnan distributed nearly 400 child abuse files, of which the majority were of girls aged from six to thirteen in various states of undress.
The foul groups on the app actively encouraged people to share, create and buy child abuse material.
Rules outlined for one group stated it both permitted and encouraged pornographic images of girls as young as four and up to the age of thirteen.
Another group used a bot to act as a gateway to a website that contained a database of girls as young as two years old.
Members of that website could participate in ‘bingo’ games to acquire ownership of images of the victims on the website, which users referred to as ‘lollies’.
On December 15, 2021, police executed a search warrant at a Mildura address and seized a phone belonging to Loughnan.
When examined, police determined he had used the mobile phone app on no less than 65 occasions and was part of vile chat rooms that were titled, ‘young hoes,’ ‘school girls,’ and ‘little heaven,’ among others.
One group contained 56,371 images and 66,714 videos depicting child abuse material. The rules of that specific group read it was a, “no rules pornography group. Any type of porn is allowed here, preferably child porn.” Members of that group were threatened with bans if they didn’t contribute or share child abuse material.
Loughnan was incredibly active across the groups and gated website and ‘owned’ six images which he titled “Daddy’s Little S---s.”
Loughnan’s solicitor said his client was having suicidal thoughts
“He is a person who teeters on the edge of suicide,” he told Judge Harper.
“His compulsion overrides his common sense,” he continued.
The prosecutor argued for Judge Harper to impose a strong sentence above the mandatory minimums.
“The overall offending was prolific. It contained five child abuse material charges. The child abuse material sent and received by the offender was extremely depraved,” the prosecutor said.
Loughnan has already served 917 days and will be sentenced by Judge Harper on July 1.
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