RAAF Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh charged with child exploitation and abuse offences following arrest by SA JACET
A sergeant with the RAAF used the internet to groom children for sexual abuse and transmitted perverse material around the world, a court has heard.
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A Royal Australian Air Force officer has faced court accused of using the internet to both groom children for sex and transmit abuse material around the world.
Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh, 35, of Blakeview, faced the Supreme Court on Friday by video link from the Adelaide Remand Centre.
He was arrested by officers from SA’s Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team on Tuesday and charged with 45 offences.
Sgt Walsh has yet to plead to 18 aggravated counts and 19 basic counts of producing child exploitation material.
He is further charged with two counts of making a child amenable to sex and one count of causing a child to expose themselves.
Sgt Walsh is also accused of two counts of dishonestly communicating with a child, and one count of doing so to make them amenable to sex.
Finally, Sgt Walsh is charged with one count of disseminating child exploitation material online.
Court documents filed by JACET allege the offending occurred at several locations in Adelaide’s northern suburbs over an eight-month period.
They allege Sgt Walsh’s offending began in May 2020 and continued until January this year.
Following his arrest, Sgt Walsh was granted bail by the Elizabeth Magistrates Court – prompting the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to file a Supreme Court appeal.
As a result, Sgt Walsh was remanded in custody pending determination of that challenge.
On Friday, John Lyons, for Sgt Walsh, asked the DPP’s appeal be postponed for one week.
“This has all come on in a hurry, and what’s happened is we’ve received an enormous amount of material (from the DPP) just this morning,” he said.
“In particular, there's a chronology that we need to investigate … it contains matters which we are not aware about and were not raised on Wednesday.
“We have to take instructions from our client about those matters.”
He said a week-long adjournment was required due to the difficulties being experienced, by lawyers, in seeing clients on remand due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“It takes some days to get to see someone in the Remand Centre … it’s quite an exercise just getting in there,” he said.
Prosecutors said they did not oppose the adjournment, but noted the material provided had “come to light” as a result of Sgt Walsh’s arrest.
Much of it, they said, came from a search of his mobile phone.
Justice Tim Stanley agreed to postpone the hearing and remanded Sgt Walsh in custody until next week.
The Advertiser has sought comment from the RAAF.
Originally published as RAAF Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh charged with child exploitation and abuse offences following arrest by SA JACET
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