Raul Palanas fronts court over grooming children for sex

A porn addict who travelled to the Philippines to attend a funeral and visit loved ones was busted with a vile stash of child abuse material upon his arrival at Melbourne Airport.

Melbourne man Raul Palanas has gone to jail for grooming children for sex outside Australia.

A 60-year-old porn addict has been busted with a horde of child abuse material at Melbourne Airport after returning from a funeral and family visit to the Philippines.

While in the Philippines, Raul Palanas offered girls under 16 money in exchange for nude photos and sex in February and March 2022.

Palanas was jailed for three years and eight months on Friday after he pleaded guilty to charges of procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia, grooming and possession of child abuse material.

Judge Simon Moglia said Palanas exchanged and received sexually explicit Facebook messages with two underaged girls, with one saying she had a friend who was also 15 and in need of money as well.

There were messages that referred to Palanas and the girl having met, Judge Moglia said.

“Your messages with her continued after the meeting, including explicit sexual content explaining what you’d like to do with her sexually and that she shouldn’t tell anyone because she was really young,” he said.

Melbourne man Raul Palanas exchanged sexually-explicit material with underaged girls in The Philippines.

“You asked if she would bring her 13-year-old sister for a future sexual encounter, including explicit messages about what you’d do with her sister, including assurances of not doing some things due to her age, and discussed a price you’d pay for such an encounter.”

There was no proof the encounter eventuated or that he paid any money.

Australian Border Force officers at Melbourne Airport examined his phone upon his return on March 6, 2022 and found child abuse material. The next day, Australian Federal Police executed a warrant at his home where further child abuse material was discovered in a USB memory stick and three compact discs.

Judge Moglia said 701 images and 29 videos were found in Palanas’ devices.

“In hindsight, you explain your offending as arising in the context of your increasing use of the internet for porn to meet your needs for sexual intimacy,” he said.

He said Palanas was an intelligent man with no priors who finished high school in the Philippines and completed an engineering degree before coming to Australia.

“While some might argue your contact consisted only of words or messages, I find that this type of conduct does cause harm to children which is likely to have long lasting effects and to pervade their relationships with others,” Judge Moglia said.

Palanas will be eligible for parole after serving 22 months.