Victoria’s worst child sex offenders of 2020: Aran Spottiswood, Daniel Pisano, Matthew Minney and more
Not all child sex offenders are filthy loners, in fact most are dads, businessmen, husbands and neighbours. Here are some of the worst Victorian fiends to go down in 2020.
South East
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A violinist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a basketball referee, a restaurant manager, a uni staffer, a privileged accountant, all members of the community normally held in high regard except these fiends all harboured a dirty and vile secret — that was until their horrid sex crimes against children were found out.
Here are some of the worst of the worst to go down in 2020.
THE FILTHY ACCOUNTANT: ARAN SPOTTISWOOD
Privileged Monash University graduate Aran Spottiswood, who filmed himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl then was found to have other child porn, was jailed.
Spottiswood met his victim on teen dating app MyLOL then messaged her via Snapchat.
She told Spottiswood she was “not interested” when he said he was 24, so he set up a new Snapchat account under which he pretended to be 19.
After “sexual” conversations he drove her to Seabrook Reserve in Broadmeadows in March 2014 and took off her clothes and raped her.
He later asked her to send nude images on Snapchat, then drove her back to the reserve and raped her again.
This time he blindfolded her and filmed his depraved act with a GoPro camera.
A few days later Spottiswood sexually assaulted his victim in his car at Glenroy’s Sewell Reserve in Glenroy, where patrolling police approached the car and arrested him after finding out the pair’s ages.
Investigators then found lewd videos and images of the victim as well as almost 2000 images and videos of vile child abuse material on Spottiswood’s electronic devices.
Some of the material included children as young as four being penetrated by adult men.
The Warrandyte man comes from a prominent family, with his father being a successful lawyer and his mum a scientist.
Spottiswood worked as an accountant and senior financial adviser for several top firms prior to his arrest including Price Waterhouse Cooper.
He was also working “3-4” nights as a part-time DJ including performing at Bayside Council events.
The 26-year-old was sentenced last August to a four-year jail term with a minimum of two years.
THE PERSONAL TRAINER: MATTHEW MINNEY
Langwarrin personal trainer Matthew Minney was exposed as a sex fiend after he groomed targets he believed were underage schoolgirls
The 30-year-old father sent sordid messages via social media KiK to undercover police posing as underage teen girls between May and September 2019, grooming his targets and soliciting lewd images.
Minney, who managed the Keysborough F45 gym and was married at the time of the offending, understood both targets were underage and at school.
He asked one to send photos of her body and “ass”, messaging, “I want to see all of you!!,” and “You are really sexy.”
He requested to meet up with both targets before police pounced on him.
But the 30-year-old avoided a jail sentence when he fronted the County Court in October, receiving a three-year adjourned undertaking.
THE REFEREE: AARON STOCKTON
Veteran basketball referee Aaron Stockton, who posed as a bisexual teenage girl on Skype to solicit vile child porn material from underage victims, was jailed.
The 37-year-old posed as blonde teenage girl ‘Amy T’ to lure and deceive his victims on Skype between April and October 2011.
Stockton engaged in sexually explicit conversation with his victims and requested images and videos of themselves performing sexualised acts.
The predator made some of his victims — aged between 12 and 14 — kneel on their beds and perform lewd acts.
He used internet language associated with young teens to keep his ruse going.
Stockton was also found to have downloaded 1214 child porn images and videos, including files which depicted sadism and bestiality, when his Gisborne home was raided in November 2019.
He is a veteran basketball referee for Basketball Victoria Country and was formerly a CFA computer specialist.
Stockton was sentenced to 12 months’ jail, with five months to be served before his release onto an 18-month good behaviour bond, before the County Court in November.
THE RESTAURANT MANAGER: DANIEL PISANO
Daniel Pisano, who posed online as a teenage boy to solicit vile images from children, was caught with almost 24,000 vile child pornography images and videos.
Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team police raided the 34-year-old’s Greenvale home in February, finding the huge amount of child abuse material, which included displays of sadism and torture, on electronic devices.
Police also seized children’s underwear and tights.
There was evidence Pisano posed as a 15-year-old bisexual teen girl and other aliases to groom multiple underage victims via KiK and WhatsApp between April 2019 and February 2020.
Pisano requested his victims send lewd images and videos of themselves and shared lewd images and videos of himself.
The sex fiend was also part of a KiK paedophile ring which shared child porn via Dropbox.
Pisano told police he paid $50 to a Russian person for a link to a vile child porn website.
He had long been the manager at northwest Lebanese restaurant Sheesh Grill when he was sentenced to a minimum of four years’ and nine months’ jail and a maximum of eight years’ before the County Court in October.
THE MUSIC TEACHER & MUSICIAN: AARON BARNDEN
Renowned violinist Aaron Barnden, who was teaching children music when he was busted with vile child pornography, was jailed.
The 43-year-old was found to have 319 vile child abuse material images, including some depicting sadism and torture, when police raided the Blackburn home he shared with his partner in September 2019.
Barnden had created his own child abuse material by photoshopping underage children onto pornographic images and had added vile details to the images.
Investigators also discovered evidence which linked Barnden to internet child porn sites and forums.
He collected more than 1000 photo files of specific images and his internet search history included: “9 year old girl mouth open” and “Young girl hooray”.
The musician was working as a music tutor and had toured Victoria and parts of the world during stints with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Barnden was a member of a Melbourne band which performed multiple gigs including Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Apollo Bay Music Festival.
According to the band’s bio it has performed with several big names including Hugh Jackman, Guy Pearce and Joe Camilleri.
Barnden was sentenced to two months’ jail and a two-year community correction order before the County Court in October.
THE SCOUT LEADER: ROBERT WILCOX
Decorated former Scout leader Robert Wilcox was exposed for committing vile sexual acts on several children during the 1970s.
Much of the 61-year-old’s offending against multiple victims, all aged under 10, occurred in different parts of Victoria over several years.
The fiend used his unique hide and seek “rules” to force his victims to commit lewd acts on each other and on him.
Wilcox, who pleaded guilty to multiple counts of indecent assault on a female, indecent assault on a male and gross indecency with a girl under 16 years, also committed lewd acts on his victims.
One of his victims finally reported him after she bumped into him at a party and he said he had “no regrets” in life.
Wilcox resigned from his position as Halls’ business development director after he was charged in September 2019.
He had received a Silver Wattle Award which he received for “outstanding” service to the Scouts and a 20-year long-service ‘decoration’ after joining the Scouts as a Venturer leader in 1995.
Wilcox recently served as the Venturer leader for 1st Upper Beaconsfield Scout Group.
He was sentenced to an 18-month community correction order with 200 hours of unpaid community work before the County Court in December.
THE BUSINESSMAN: BENJAMIN ROBERT
Businessman dad Benjamin Robert was exposed as a child sex fiend after he groomed who he thought was a schoolgirl for sex via social media.
The Clyde father of three sent images of his penis and lewd messages via KiK and WhatsApp to an undercover cop posing as a 14-year-old schoolgirl in February.
Robert asked the target for lewd images after learning his target was a 14-year-old Year 8 student — a similar age to his daughter.
The 40-year-old said he wanted to give her a “sensual experience” and suggested the pair could meet at the beach and he could “perform oral sex” and “make her orgasm”.
Robert was arrested when he went to meet his target at Frankston McDonalds.
Robert was sentenced to two years’ jail time before the County Court in November but will be released on a two-year good behaviour bond after serving nine months.
THE SERIAL SEX OFFENDER: STEPHEN SEDGLEY
Convicted sex offender Stephen Sedgley went down after he had sex with a 15-year-old girl then made vile comments about her to a friend.
The 22-year-old had sex with his victim at a party at an Eaglehawk property in August 2019 then told his friend he “f****d” his victim and “I can turn lesbians straight”.
The friend said that wasn’t possible because the victim was a “virgin”.
“Well I took that,” Sedgley said.
Sedgley had previously been convicted for having child pornography, communicating with a child under sixteen and breaching the Sex Offender Registration Act.
The Ballarat father-of-two repeatedly denied his crime and was sentenced to a minimum of two years’ and six months’ jail and a maximum of four years’ and 10 months’ at the County Court in September.
THE FILTHY FATHER: DAMIEN GRISCTI
Berwick dad Damien Griscti, who used social media to groom a child for sex, asking her to join him and his partner for a threesome, has been jailed.
Griscti sent lewd messages and images via social media app KiK to an undercover cop he believed was a 14-year-old girl between August and November 2019.
He called the target ‘cutie’, ‘kitten’, ‘princess’ and ‘little one’ and told her, “young hot bodies turned him on”.
Griscti asked the target if she wanted to visit him at his work and if she wanted to have a threesome with his girlfriend.
He said he wanted to meet her friends and asked the target to send images of herself performing lewd acts.
The 39-year-old father of two was sentenced to 20-months jail — with 14 months suspended — before the County Court in September.
THE UNI FIEND: BENJAMIN GIBBS
US citizen Benjamin Gibbs, who kept his Melbourne Open Universities job after admitting to sharing vile child abuse material among a paedophile ring, was jailed.
Gibbs was nabbed after police received a tip-off from the FBI Child Exploitation Force that an “Australian citizen” was sharing child pornography via social media app KiK.
When police raided his Caulfield home in August 2019 they found he had shared vile videos and images to dozens of other KiK users since July 2019 and had shared material in secret paedophile chat groups.
Investigators found 383 vile images and videos on Gibbs’ phone including material depicting penetration, sadism, humiliation and torture.
Some of the material was Anime or cartoons depicting child pornography.
Gibbs kept his Open Universities Australia marketing role after being granted bail and his boss wrote a reference on his behalf.
The 31-year-old was jailed for a maximum three years and four months, with the last 12 months to be served in the community on a good behaviour bond, at the County Court in August.
He will be deported after his sentence is complete.
