Darwin man accessed ‘disturbing’ online resource titled ‘The Paedophile’s Handbook’

A Darwin man who used the dark web to access a ‘disturbing’ online resource titled ‘The Paedophile’s Handbook’ has been sentenced at the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

A DARWIN man who used the dark web to access a “disturbing” online resource titled “The Paedophile’s Handbook” will spend at least nine months behind bars.

Jayden Trevitt, 30, was sentenced at the Northern Territory Supreme Court last week after pleading guilty to accessing and possessing child abuse material on his gaming computer and iPhone.

After being tipped off by Trevitt’s then-fiance, police uncovered a “broad and disturbing range” of child abuse material had been accessed over a two-day period in August, 2021, including of children as young as two years old and depictions of children “obviously in distress”.

One of the materials was “The Paedophile’s Handbook”, which Chief Justice Michael Grant described as a resource that explained “how to find and groom children, how to avoid detection of that sort of activity, how to get children to keep offending behaviours secret and how to train children to engage in penetrative intercourse”.

The 648-page digital handbook included chapters with titles such as “Finding Children”, “Hunting Season”, and “Penetration Training”.

Jayden Trevitt was convicted of accessing and possessing child abuse material.

Trevitt was in 2012 convicted of using his phone to record his then-housemate through the bathroom window while she showering on five separate occasions.

On August 22, 2021, Trevitt’s then-fiance woke around 2am and discovered he was not in bed.

She found Trevitt, then 29, in the living room on his gaming computer entering various child exploitation forums and accessing child abuse material.

Trevitt’s then-fiance surreptitiously filmed the 29-year-old, then went back to bed and contacted police the following day.

The court heard police were unable to analyse several of Trevitt’s drives seized because they required passwords that Trevitt refused to provide assistance with. The content of those drives remain unknown.

In sentencing, Justice Grant considered the gravity of Trevitt’s offending and his prospects of rehabilitation.

“I must necessarily take into account the fact that children have been grievously harmed in both a physical and a psychological sense to satisfy the loathsome, base and perverse desires of people like you,” Justice Grant said.

“There is no direct evidence before me to suggest that you have acknowledged, or that you are genuinely remorseful for, the fact that you have been part of creating demand for material of this kind, and in doing so have contributed to the suffering of many children.

“I am also not in possession of any material adduced during the course of this sentencing exercise which would enable me to make an informed assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation.”

Trevitt was handed down a head prison sentence of 18 months, but was directed to be released on a recognisance order after serving 9 months.

A good behaviour bond will be in place for two years following Trevitt’s release and his computer, iPhone, and several other drives were forfeited to the Commonwealth.