Melbourne dad and BASF sales technician Mark Dekleuver charged with child abuse material offences
A Melbourne BASF salesman accused of being part of an online pedo ring allegedly fantasised about “violently raping” children.
South East
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A Melbourne dad shared child abuse material with an international pedo ring and fantasised about “chocking” and “violently raping” a child, a court has heard.
Mark Dekleuver, a purported “respected” BASF sales technician, fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ on Thursday charged with child abuse material offending.
It’s alleged Dekleuver, formerly of Lang Lang in Melbourne’s southeast, allegedly shared vile videos and images in June last year.
Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team members received a tip-off before moving in and arresting Dekleuver on December 29.
The court heard Dekleuver uploaded and shared the material to a Wickr chat group.
JACET detective Senior Constable Cheryl Goad told the court Dekleuver also allegedly shared “explicit” messages to Wickr chat group ‘at the brink’.
“(The messages) described in detail how he wanted to violently and brutally rape (a child),” detective Goad said.
Detective Goad then stopped short of reading out the alleged messages, telling the court she was concerned the content may “inflict trauma on others”.
Detective Goad also expressed fears that if Dekleuver was released then he may delete content from his MEGA Cloud account.
She said investigators had not been able to access the account, telling the court Dekleuver had been “vague” in providing account details and had not coughed up his password.
“If he was to get in there before I can … he can get rid of all that evidence that’s on there …,” detective Goad said.
“His phone contains a folder ‘MEGA downloads’ and it contains mainly images of infants and young toddlers being sexually offended against.
“There were about 70 or 90 images in that folder, what I am saying is I don’t know if that is the full extent of what he has in his MEGA …
“Whether he’s just downloaded 70 out of, I don’t know, 200 … and there’s more on there I don’t know about … I haven’t been able to access his cloud account, I can see what’s on his phone …”
The prosecutor confirmed 96 images were allegedly found on Dekleuver’s phone.
Detective Goad told the court Dekleuver’s Wickr group was subject to an international investigation.
“There’s offenders internationally who have been identified and apprehended and its ongoing …,” detective Goad said.
“There’s nothing to stop Mr Dekleuver getting out and starting a Wickr account and alerting everybody in those very large groups … and letting them know there is an ongoing investigation.”
The court heard child abuse material allegedly shared by Dekleuver was found on an international offender’s device.
Detective Goad confirmed Dekleuver faces six charges but investigators expected to lay approximately 80 further charges.
Dekleuver, who appeared via videolink from Ravenhall Correctional, made an application for bail.
The defence called Dekleuver’s father to give evidence supporting his son’s application.
Mr Dekleuver senior told the court his son was an experienced spray painter who worked as a “sales technician” for global paints giant BASF.
Mr Dekleuver also confirmed in court that he had contacted BASF to check if his son’s job was “still open to him” if he got out of custody.
“Yes, his job is very safe …,” Mr Dekleuver said.
“Well, he’s a very respected member of the team and he can go back tomorrow (Friday).”
Mr Dekleuver told the court his son goes to different shops and if they like the product “he gets a sale”.
“He installs the product and shows them how to use it,” Mr Dekleuver said.
Mr Dekleuver also confirmed he was aware his son received a community correction for prior sexual offending and completed a sex offender program.
“I didn’t think so, no (my son would offend in that manner again) …,” Mr Dekleuver said.
“I knew what was going on back then but I don't know what’s been going on just recently …”
A BASF spokesperson could not comment on whether the company was aware of Dekleuver’s criminal charges.
“BASF has zero tolerance for any breaches of its code of conduct and we are unable to comment on matters in front of the court,” the spokesperson said.
Dekleuver, who was refused bail, will front court at a later date.
