Child abuse material: Gold Coast crooks’ disgusting crimes revealed
Their crimes are beyond comprehension – these are Gold Coast residents busted with horrific videos and imagery depicting the disturbing sexual abuse of innocent children. FULL REPORT
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THEIR crimes are beyond comprehension – these are Gold Coasters busted with horrific videos and imagery depicting the disturbing sexual abuse of innocent children.
All of the offenders listed below either pleaded guilty or were convicted of possessing or making child exploitation material when they faced city courts.
THEME PARK PERVERT
Movie World worker Myles Andrew Lyster pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material and using a restricted computer without consent when he faced Southport District Court in January 2020.
Lyster, 49, admitted emailing himself hundreds of sexually explicit pictures of children and women enjoying rides at the Gold Coast theme park.
The photos, which included upskirting images of young girls and pictures of adult women with their breasts exposed, were taken from cameras usually used to capture happy snaps to sell to park guests.
Lyster’s bosses at Movie World approached police when they caught him sending the accidentally explicit photos to himself, which are usually not sold or otherwise made public.
Police officers also discovered four sexual images of girls aged between six and 11 at Lyster’s home.
Lyster, who the court was told was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder, was sentenced to six months in prison, wholly suspended, and placed on probation for two years.
He had no prior criminal history.
REPEAT OFFENDER
Gold Coast father Robert John Mitchell was caught with more than 32,000 child sexual abuse images and videos – the fourth time he was convicted in 21 years.
Mitchell, who said he viewed the disturbing images when he was “stressed”, had been addicted to the photos and videos since he was 11, when he was shown abuse pictures by a relative, the Southport District Court was told.
In September 2020, Mitchell, 45, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a carriage service to access child pornography material and one count each of possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to transmit child pornography material.
Children in the images and video were aged between 5-16 and some of the videos pictured children as young as five being raped.
The court was told Mitchell had been diagnosed with a number of disorders including paraphilia, paedophilia and borderline personality.
Mitchell was sentenced to three years in prison, immediately suspended, after he spent 381 days in pre-sentence custody.
VILE VIDEO
Christopher Edward Hunt admitted to having sex with the family dog and possessing videos of children engaged in sex acts with animals.
Hunt, 31, was caught with more than 14 hours of child exploitation video footage, including torture and sexual images of children as young as eight.
More than 500 still images were found on his computer.
Hunt pleaded guilty in Southport District Court in August 2018 to two counts of bestiality, one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
Justice Catherine Muir sentenced him to 18 months jail, which was suspended immediately with an operational period of three years.
She took into account his lack of criminal history and that he was seeking treatment from a psychologist.
Justice Muir said: “This is not a victimless crime. Somewhere someone in the world is making films with real children … subjected to degradation … just so people like you can get access to the images.”
‘NOT VICTIMLESS CRIMES’
Gold Coast businessman Alan Edward Smith faced Southport District Court in September 2018 after he was found with more than 1500 images and 90 videos of child sexual abuse.
He pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to make available child pornography material.
Smith, 59, used peer-to-peer file-transfer website eMule to share two videos of children being sexually abused. including girls as young as seven, the court was told.
Two USB drives were found in Smith’s underwear drawer and analysis found more than 1500 images.
The most horrific video showed a girl aged nine who had been bound and forced to perform sex acts on a man and a dog.
Smith suffered from impotence after recovering from bowel cancer and gave no explanation for his behaviour.
Judge Paul Smith said: “They are not victimless crimes … engaging in this you are encouraging the abuse of children.”
The offender was sentenced to 20 months jail-time, with release after five months, and he had to complete two years of probation on release.
BAKER BUSTED
Bakers Delight worker and New Zealand citizen Jesse Baker was sprung by police with 3189 files on his devices during a raid on his home in January 2018.
A total of 123 child abuse material images and 800 movies were rated by investigators as being in the worst possible categories.
They pictured children being sexually abused by adults, the Southport District Court was told in June 2019.
Children pictured ranged in age from toddlers to pre-pubescent teens, male and female.
Baker, 28, who had no prior criminal history, pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material.
Judge Ian Dearden told Baker the “appalling and degrading” material pictured “actual children who were actually abused”.
The court did take into account remorse, co-operation with police, early guilty pleas and a lack of history, among other factors.
The court was also told Baker, described as “disgusted” by his actions, lived with a congenital bowel condition, hypoglycaemia and had experienced poor mental health.
Baker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail, suspended after six months for three years.
‘ART’ EXCUSE
Arundel father Vaughan Desmond Stewart, 51, was found to have downloaded 11,432 child abuse images and nine videos – but said he “considered them as art”.
The child exploitation material focused on genitalia of girls.
Stewart pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court in June 2019 to possessing child exploitation material and accessing material using a carriage service, the internet.
Police uncovered the images and videos when they raided Stewart’s home and seized a computer tower.
Crown prosecutor Cameron Wilkins described the offending as “incredibly serious”, though much of the material was rated category 1, the lowest end of the scale.
However, 41 images were rated in the more serious category 2.
The court was told Stewart – diagnosed with HIV after a brief sexual encounter with a backpacker – became “desensitised to pornography” and progressed into illegal material due to depression.
Stewart was sentenced to 15 months jail and released immediately on a two-year good behaviour bond. He was also placed on probation for two years.
FORMER TEACHER’S VILE VIDEO
Former schoolteacher Simon Birt pleaded guilty in 2016 to possessing child exploitation material after a raid on his Worongary home unearthed seven sexually explicit photos and a video of boys aged 9-12 stretching 11 minutes.
The member of the Nerang Roosters Junior Rugby League Club, who moved to accounting, also lost his Blue Card. No children from the club were in the images and video.
Bird’s plea in the Southport District Court showed remorse and he significantly co-operated with police, the court was told.
Judge Julie Dick said such offences were “prevalent” through the courts and there was another child-related matter adjourned in the same court the day before.
The images did not involve any children from the club.
Birt was ordered to serve 12 months probation and a conviction was not recorded.
ONLINE PREDATOR
Gold Coast man and New Zealand national Cameron Alistar Conrad, 36, preyed on almost 40 different children online to make child exploitation material.
Conrad was arrested by police after seven months of “exploitative and predatory” offending in September 2017.
Conrad, who pleaded guilty to making child exploitation material, used “roulette-style” randomised chat rooms, frequented by children, and masturbated in view of his victims.
He told the children to touch themselves and in some cases touch each other while he recorded, the court was told.
Conrad’s offending saw him prey on 37 children aged between five and 14 and the children were from Russia, Ukraine and Australia.
Conrad was caught with 42 videos and 1032 child exploitation images on two mobile phones and an online storage service. He did not share the images or videos.
He was sentenced in the Southport District Court in November 2018 to a six-year jail-term with parole eligibility after serving two years, considering 423 days served in pre-sentence custody.
The court was told the father of two had a “prejudicial upbringing” in New Zealand, suffered from learning and behavioural difficulties and moved to Australia as a teenager.
SCHOOL CLEANER’S SHAME
Darryl Roy Huntley was found with 16 pairs of girls underwear and 506 images in an album named “young girls with their legs spread open”, and two more images considered more disturbing, when police searched his home.
The images possessed by Huntley showed girls aged 5-6 and 14-15 cropped to feature the torso area while the other two involved girls kissing or lying on a bed together.
The then-cleaner at Arundel State School and Miami State High School pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material, receiving tainted property and stealing in May 2016.
The Southport District Court was told Huntley admitted to an “inappropriate sexual fetish” possibly resulting from sexual abuse by a relative when he was a child.
Huntley told police the underwear from girls sized 3-6 were souvenirs and the court was told there was no evidence suggesting he carried out sexual acts. One pair still had a tag on them.
Judge Paul Smith said: “You say it was more of a fascination possessing these images and you never in a million years would touch a child but you accept you think you have a problem that you need help for.”
Huntley was sentenced to a four-month suspended term for the images and 18 months probation for the other charges.
‘AN ADDICTION’
Online poker player Jason Phillip McKiernan, 41, was busted with 13 USB drives containing more than 40,000 videos and images of child sexual abuse.
More than half of the videos found were in the two worst categories and included juveniles being forced to engage in bondage, bestiality, sodomy and humiliating acts.
McKiernan pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material when he faced Southport District Court in June.
He told police he had “an addiction”, the court was told.
In total, police discovered 2918 videos of child abuse and more than 40,000 images, among some adult pornography.
McKiernan lived with mental health issues since 2004 and was hospitalised in 2016 and 2018, the court was told.
He was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended after serving six months
Originally published as Child abuse material: Gold Coast crooks’ disgusting crimes revealed
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