Meet Matthew James McDonald- one of Queensland’s most dangerous pedophiles

A shockingly brazen Queensland pedophile, who corners children in public places and commits unthinkable acts the second his “supervisor” isn’t watching, has claimed his 19th victim – a tiny girl in a playground toilet block.

Matthew James McDonald, 23, of Slade Point faced Mackay Magistrates Court in custody on Monday, November 5, 2018.

Young, blonde and so cunning he managed to still prey on children while supposedly under constant supervision, Matthew James McDonald can be revealed as one of Queensland’s most dangerous pedophiles.

The extreme risk the 29-year-old poses to the public, and a psychologist’s recommendation for chemical castration were recently highlighted in Rockhampton District Court where McDonald was sentenced in March for his latest heinous act – the sexual assault of a five-year-old girl in a playground toilet.

Five-year-old Ebony* was enjoying a day out at the park in Frenchville, Rockhampton when she was secretly followed by every parent’s worst nightmare.

As the parent waited outside the toilet block, McDonald climbed over a partition, got into the girl’s stall, and told the child to be quiet before he carried out an extreme sexual act on her, only stopping after her parent called out to her a second time, the court heard.

And it wasn’t the first time the predator had followed a child to gain sexual gratification.

The registered child sex offender had previously been sentenced for following children in public places, including Bunnings (four children, 16 photos) and Kmart.

He has offended against at least 19 Central Queensland and Mackay/Whitsundays children in the past 10 years.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Keast said McDonald told police he had carried out those offences for “his own sexual gratification”.

He said McDonald was being escorted in the community by a support worker moments before the Elphinstone Street park attack but the support worker had left him alone and that McDonald first recorded the child before abusing her.

The court heard the parent saw McDonald leaving the toilet block a short time after the child and became suspicious and the girl quickly told them what had happened.

Mr Keast said McDonald, who “received quite extensive … quite a lot of support from a support worker” but would go out into the community unsupervised when their shifts ended, also took photos or videos of 10 different female children on seven different dates in December 2022.

“It involved predatory conduct, including entering schools, filming children in compromised positions, interacting with children and following them,” Mr Keast said.

This was revealed after the playground toilet attack and police found McDonald with a phone, which he had stashed in a zipped cushion and failed to disclose as part of his sex offender reporting obligations.

More evidence of his perversions was found in folders that had been given vile titles including “little girls underwear showing” and “butt lump and p**** front”.

When searching McDonald’s Koongal home in December 2022, police also discovered 367 tabs open on his computer linking to child abuse material and “the vast majority of those websites were accessed through the dark web”.

In total 8048 CEM images and 170 videos were found on McDonald’s devices.

McDonald had also failed to report various accounts he had used to talk to children online including YouTube, email, Telstra wif, Pinterest, VegoLive, Xbox Live, IMO, Zigazoo, BuzzCast and Xoul along with psych services website Purple Ocean.

The court heard McDonald has been officially diagnosed with pedophilic disorder and intellectual impairment with a high risk of reoffending.

Judge Jeff Clarke, who described the toilet offence as “monstrous”, said the psychiatrist report outlined McDonald’s sexual attraction to young girls.

“It is confirmed that his pedophilic disorder is so entrenched that he poses an above average risk of committing another sexual offence in the future,” he said.

Judge Clarke said the report stated McDonald’s offending started in New South Wales and his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in Mackay where it continued.

“Orders of lengthy supervision for psychological counselling have failed to rehabilitate him,” he said noting that McDonald, despite having an intellectual impairment, was resourceful and tech-savvy enough to use the internet to access the dark web “filth”.

He’d also continued to offend while on probation, receiving specialist assistance, while in prison and subject to restrictions as a reportable sex offender.

“The hope for change really seems to me to be quite bleak,” he said.

“(McDonald) still admits to an interest in the perversion and the only hope, as he told (the psychiatrist) is that his dislike for being incarcerated will motivate him to seek the help that he told him he is willing to undertake.”

The court heard the psychiatrist has suggested chemical castration may help reduce McDonald’s risk level for recidivism.

McDonald pleaded guilty to nine counts of making child exploitation material, one count of indecent treatment of a child under 12, one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and 12 counts of failing to comply with reporting requirements as a reportable child sex offender.

He was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail with 790 days presentence custody declared as time already served.

No order for parole was made.

‘In just two minutes a public toilet predator changed our family forever’

Demanding “justice for our little girl”, a shattered Qld mother has described the lifelong impact of an insidious pedophile on her family. Read her harrowing victim impact statement in full. 

“So many things take two minutes.

“You can get dressed, make a cup of coffee, you can wait in line and you can send an email.

“But nobody really expects two minutes to change you and your family’s lives forever.

“I’m here today to talk to you, to explain to the court the effect this crime has had on me and my family.

“First, I want to stand here and speak to the effect it has had on me as an individual.

“I want you to know and understand that my mental health will never be the same as it was before.

“I want you to understand that when I close my eyes, all I see is his face; that the nightmares are consistent and my trust in people, especially men, is broken.

“I constantly question my ability to parent and to keep my children safe.

“I have lost friendships, lost the ability to enjoy hobbies, and even at my lowest, the ability to enjoy and thirst for life.

“I also stand here to speak to you on behalf of my family.

“I can tell you about the physical, mental, financial pain that this event has caused.

“The missed work, the ongoing appointments for us and our children; mental health counselling, sexual health and wellbeing appointments, not to mention the days we cannot simply face the world.

“We struggle to trust anyone with the care of our children, even people we previously would have allowed.

“We struggled to let them out of our sight.

“Every experience we now have as a family will be forever changed due to the nature of this crime.

“The fear that envelops us anytime we take our children to a public place truly illustrates this.

“But the most significant part of everything I have to say today is to stand here and to speak on behalf of someone who cannot, the most important person in all of this – Ebony – our daughter, a beautiful, kind, smart, emotionally intelligent, strong and brave little girl who is not yet able to fully comprehend the gravity of what was taken from her that day at just five years old. Her safety, her privacy, her innocence and her autonomy was stolen from her in an instant.

“I ask that the court seeks justice for our little girl.

“I wish I could stand here and tell you that today, one sentence, we can put this all behind us, but the ripple effect this crime has had on our family will be felt forever.”

*Ebony is not the child’s real name.

Originally published as Meet Matthew James McDonald- one of Queensland’s most dangerous pedophiles