‘Ultimate betrayal’: Friend’s sickening secret

The photo shows a groomsman supporting the happy couple. But those in the wedding party were unaware that someone was hiding a terrible secret.

To his friends, he presented as just a “normal” guy – living with his girlfriend of three years, a groomsman at a wedding, attending parties and playing golf – but they were left shocked when he was arrested, convicted of child porn offences and sent to jail for eight years.

That man is Steven Burke, who is described as a “pathetic monster that hid as a human among my friends and I for years” by his former friend Ronald*.

Burke was imprisoned after he admitted to police he had looked into strangers’ windows, “perved” on people and taken images — with some victims as young as 15 — for his own “sick gratification”.

Police also uncovered more than 450,000 child sex abuse images and videos that Burke possessed.

Burke was sentenced to eight years in prison in the County Court of Victoria after he pleaded guilty to 14 charges including making child sex abuse material and accessing child abuse material as well as stalking and loitering in a school.

Steve Burke’s former friends had no idea of the secrets he was hiding. Picture: Supplied

Ronald said he was originally friends with Burke during high school after he worked with another mate but they then lost touch.

Years later a chance encounter on a bus saw Burke welcomed back into the friendship group.

But they had no idea of Burke’s offending. Between May 2000 and January 2015, Burke had accumulated 22 convictions or findings of guilt from eight court appearances which included knowingly possessing child pornography, making or producing child pornography and stalking.

“He was just a normal bloke, you would talk about normal stuff, cricket here and there, we used to play golf,” Ronald told news.com.au.

“He was quite serious. My mum said he was a straight-laced, serious kind of guy, but he had a joking side. But there wasn’t anything that distinguished himself and I think that’s how he wanted to come across, so he could hide.”

Steve Burke as a groomsmen at the wedding the weekend before he was arrested. Picture: Supplied

‘Haunted’

Burke was a groomsmen at a friend’s wedding, Ronald said, before everything changed.

“That was the weekend before he disappeared from our lives as he was arrested and detained,” he said.

“It was a big shock to us as we never knew anything about this side. We knew his girlfriend, who could have possibly become his fiance, if not for the fact that happened.”

It left them haunted about Burke’s close involvement in the wedding day.

“We were all absolutely pissed, to the point we are grateful that one of the photos we had he isn’t in it. There were a lot of the photos he was in,” he explained. “It’s not great, it still haunts us today.”

It’s also had a lasting impact on the friendship group.

“We jokingly refer to Steve as Voldermort as his name shall not be mentioned,” he said.

“He helped me organise the bucks party for my best mate … It’s one of those things when you’re good mates with someone, you go out drinking, play games, go out golfing, you expect to think you know the person.”

Steve Burke was in most of the wedding pictures. Picture: Supplied

‘Absolute monster behind closed doors’

During his sentencing in 2017, Justice Christopher Ryan told Burke that the “community must be protected from you” and he regarded his prospects for rehabilitation as “bleak”.

Ronald is now a dad-of-two and said the situation was the “ultimate betrayal” for the group of friends, who were unaware of his “particularly devious and conniving” nature, he added.

“His ability to fraudulently pass himself off as a functioning member of society is very high,” he said.

“Myself, I was a witness to a person who obviously seemed like a very functional person. It’s no different from a functioning drunk that on the outside appears like a normal person but behind closed doors was a complete mess. But to say he was a complete mess is an understatement – he was an absolute monster behind closed doors.”

Steve Burke was serious but also a jokester. Picture: Supplied

Ronald said he felt a jolt when he saw a news.com.au article that revealed that Burke had been released but had created a LinkedIn profile where he claimed he worked as a horticulture and groundskeeper at Beaufort Farm between May 2016 and March this year. However, this is actually a prison farm called HM Prison Langi Kal Kal.

Since the story was published, Burke has updated his LinkedIn profile with a new job.

Ronald claimed he had gotten Burke’s Facebook profile wiped when he went to jail and is now lobbying LinkedIn to get his account deactivated.

“LinkedIn can do an image dead search and if his face shows up in a profile, it gets blocked and taken down,” he explained.

A LinkedIn spokesperson said the platform is committed to keeping its community safe, trusted and professional.

“Our Professional Community Policies clearly outline that false or misleading information is not allowed on LinkedIn,” they said.

“We encourage our members to report anything they believe goes against our policies so that we can investigate and take action. We’ve also introduced a range of verification features on the profile to help foster a trusted community and help people make more informed decisions about who they interact with on LinkedIn.”

Steve Burke's LinkedIn profile. Picture: LinkedIn

Call for him to be kept off the internet

The 40-year-old believes Burke should never be able to access the internet again given his offending.

The court heard Burke used the dark net to access the material and encrypted files to make detection difficult.

“He never came across as being heavily a tech nerd. He worked in sales and IT but never came across as technically adept to do anything major,” Ronald said.

“It’s interesting to know those sorts of people can still get access to that data and still have access to the internet. And I’m surprised they would even let him near a computer and to create a LinkedIn profile.”

His job showing his prison time. Picture: LinkedIn

Ronald said Burke’s girlfriend at the time had lived with him for two years and it was an absolute shock to her with the experience leaving her “scarred”.

It has shaken the friend group’s trust in people too, Ronald admitted, as Burke “wasn’t anything outstanding or overblown – he was just Steve”.

“We trust people now but we also verify. It’s not the greatest way to live maybe but we know each other and know our friends a lot more because of it,” he added.

‘The world is much more threatening’

Clinical psychologist Dr Rob Battisti said it was “distressing” for people to uncover someone who they thought was a friend was involved in such heinous acts.

“Someone who looks like everyone, who looks like us, we struggle to consider they could do things like (child porn offences) because then it could be anybody and anyone we care about could be at risk,” he said.

“We need to believe that overall that they are a terrible person, that have no redeeming qualities. But it’s the simple fact that they do have other aspects that are not consistent with being a bad person that makes it hard to identify these people.”

Steve Burke on LinkedIn. Picture: LinkedIn

Ultimately, an experience like this is going to leave an “indelible stain” on how people see the world, Dr Battisti said.

“Think of it like the bubble being burst — suddenly the world is a much more threatening and dangerous place and that’s something they never considered possible in their lives,” he said. “As a society, we need to believe these things can’t happen and we can almost describe it as a loss of innocence. They would potentially be fearful around forming new close relationships and be paranoid and that would be very understandable. It would be hard to trust again.”

He added it was important to have self compassion if you ever find yourself in this type of situation and seek out help through a GP, psychologist or counsellor.

“It’s about identifying that any of us can end up in this situation, which is terrifying,” he noted.

“And that doesn’t make it common but it is the truth that anyone can know someone theoretically because it’s not to do with socio-economic status or ethnicity or where you live in the city or country – none of those things is associated with the crime necessarily.”

Steve Burke with his mates at the time. Picture: Supplied

His former friend said he presented as just a normal guy who liked things like playing golf. Picture: Supplied

Not a victimless crime

A sample of the more than 450,000 child exploitation files was provided to the Victorian judge.

He found they involved children performing sexual acts on each other and on adults, bestiality, and disturbing animated images of children with the “depths of depravity” beyond belief, Justice Ryan said.

“It must never be forgotten that every child who appears within an image of child pornography is a victim. Possessing and making child pornography are not victimless crimes,” he said.

News.com.au contacted Burke for comment.

*Name changed for privacy reasons

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