NRL star Brett Finch charged over ‘child abuse chat line’

Brett Finch is one of eight men charged over a chat service used to ‘allegedly arrange the dissemination of child abuse material’.

Brett Finch will face Sutherland Local Court, in southern Sydney, on January 11.

Former NRL star Brett Finch will defend charges arising from his alleged involvement in a “child abuse chat line”.

The 40-year-old, who last played for Melbourne Storm, was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in Sydney’s south and charged with five counts of use carriage service to transmit or publish or promote child abuse.

He is one of eight men, aged between 34 and 71, charged this month.

Police formed Strike Force Hank this month to investigate an adult telephone chat service used to “allegedly arrange the dissemination of child abuse material and discuss the sexual abuse of children”.

Brett Finch playing for the Melbourne Storm in 2013. Picture: Getty Images

“We will allege that each of the men arrested by detectives over the past month expressed desires to engage in sexual activity with children, and in some cases, attempted to access child abuse material from other users of the service,” Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said.

“Producing, disseminating or possessing child abuse material are serious offences, and detectives will continue to dismantle these types of operations, so children are free from harmful situations, exploitation and abuse.”

Mr Finch’s lawyer Paul McGirr told The Australian his client would defend the matter, adding he had not “disseminated any material”.

“Some of these allegations are over a year old. So in that particular respect he’s quite shocked, as you can imagine,” Mr McGirr said.

“It’s well documented he’s had issues in the past, of late he’s been doing very well.”

Mr Finch was granted strict conditional bail by police on Tuesday and is prohibited from remaining in the company or communicating with any child under the age of 16, except for immediate family, where he must be supervised by an adult.

He is also prohibited from being near premises frequented by children, and not allowed to live at an address connected to the internet. He is banned from accessing any social networks, and cannot possess a mobile phone capable of accessing the internet.

He was also required to hand in his passport and must report to police three times a week. He will face Sutherland Local Court, in southern Sydney, on January 11.