Former NSW Labor official Peter Hansen stored 100,000 files of child sex abuse material, court hears

Former Labor branch president and priest Peter Hansen stashed more than 100,000 files of child sex abuse material before he was arrested.

Peter Hansen was found to have stashed more than 100,000 files of child sex abuse material. Picture: Facebook

Former Labor branch president and Catholic priest Peter Hansen had stashed more than 100,000 files of child sex abuse material before he was arrested after one of his regular trips to Southeast Asia, a Sydney court has heard.

The “egregious” cache of meticulously organised folders was discovered by Border Force after Hansen was stopped on arrival home at Sydney Airport on October 6, 2018.

The files, stored across four electronic devices, were dated between 2008 and 2018.

Hansen, 63, pleaded guilty to 31 offences in February, including one of sexual intercourse with a child under 18, and 15 counts of producing child sex abuse material.

A sentencing hearing at the District Court on Thursday, where Hansen appeared via video link, heard Judge James Bennett outline an “abhorrent exchange” of encrypted messages between the offender and a man using the screen name “Maliboy Hornbag.”

Hansen, under the moniker “Baga Tay”, shared details of upcoming “nude parties” with six to eight children.

“Most” of Hansen’s victims were given 250-300 pesos, less than AU$20, for each encounter, as well as a “gift and outing and food”, the messages revealed.

“(For an) outstanding performance … I might pump up to 500 (pesos) but that’s the absolute limit,” Hansen wrote.

The pair also exchanged images of naked children, and Hansen described one of the boys as a “little sucker”.

Hansen regularly travelled to the Philippines and Vietnam between 2014 to 2018 where he sexually abused nine children, aged 10 to 14, and took pornographic photos of several others, the court heard.

The photos seized by the police showed victims posing naked on the offender’s bed, masturbating themselves and each other, and watching heterosexual pornography.

Filipino native Joey Donozo, 34, assisted Hansen in acquiring children in exchange for 300 pesos (AU$19) per boy and a one-off gift of a digital camera as a “thanks”, Justice Bennett said.

Donozo would take photos of young boys in their school uniforms under the guise of a “modelling shoot” and then eventually introduce them to Hansen, the court heard.

On one occasion, Donozo brought five boys to a villa he had rented for Hansen, where they stood in a line, watched the offender undress and perform oral sex on them.

When interviewed by police, one of the victims said the interaction felt “not good”.

The sentencing hearing continues on Friday.