Perth lollipop man Michael Cyril Hyde on trial for eight child sex offences

A court has been told a Perth lollipop man filmed himself sexually abusing young children, including a one-year-old baby after gaining her mother’s trust. WARNING: Graphic.

<b>WARNING: This story contains graphic content.</b>

A lollipop man filmed himself sexually abusing young children, including a one-year-old baby after gaining her mother’s trust while working at a western suburbs primary school, a court has been told.

Michael Cyril Hyde, 60, is on trial in the District Court accused of eight child sex offences against five young children from two families, which prosecutors say were committed between 2011 and 2016.

Mr Hyde is accused of persistently engaging in sexual conduct with three of the children, including two sisters aged between six and seven and a baby girl from another family from the age of one until she was four.

He is also accused of creating child pornography involving two other children.

During the first day of Mr Hyde’s trial today, the jury was warned the videos they would have to watch to decide the case were confronting, and Judge Felicity Davis ordered that the court be closed while they were shown.

Opening the State’s case, prosecutor David Jubb said Mr Hyde befriended the mother of the baby and her sister while working as a traffic warden at a primary school and after gaining her trust, began babysitting the pair.

Mr Jubb said on at least three occasions, Mr Hyde filmed himself indecently dealing with the baby, touching her vagina and stroking her nipples.

“We know of this because he filmed it,” Mr Jubb said.

Mr Hyde is alleged to have used a hand-held camera to film down the older girl’s top and up her school skirt.

He is also charged with sexual offences involving three children from a different family who were well-known to him but not connected to the school — two sisters aged between six and seven and their brother when he was six.

On one occasion, Mr Jubb said Mr Hyde filmed himself molesting one of the sisters as she slept, saying he offered her money and asked “how much she would cost and how long he could have her for”.

Mr Hyde film himself rubbing her sister’s nipples, spreading her legs and touching her vagina, referring to both girls’ genitalia in an “indecent” manner, Mr Jubb said.

The court was told Mr Hyde filmed the boy twice as he came out of the shower naked.

Mr Jubb told jurors he would be showing them “several hours” of footage seized from Mr Hyde’s home in April 2013, which he said was going to be a “very testing time, but play it we must”.

“The State won’t be relying on the children to tell you what happened to them because the video footage speaks for (itself),” he said.

Mr Jubb said during the police raid, Mr Hyde had admitted the computers and electronic equipment found at his home belonged to him and that nobody else used it.

He said when police questioned Mr Hyde about a video of himself pulling aside a young girl’s underwear, he said the girl “had a small cut that had been there all her life” and due to an auto-immune deficiency, it had “turned into a black spot”.

“He said his behaviour in general was not inappropriate,” Mr Jubb said.

Defence lawyer Max Crispe today said Mr Hyde maintained that position, saying in his opening address that “the accused denies the conduct was sexual”.

Mr Crispe acknowledged the evidence was confronting, but urged the jury to keep an open mind and to wait until the end of the trial before forming a view on Mr Hyde’s innocence or guilt.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Perth lollipop man Michael Cyril Hyde on trial for eight child sex offences