Green activist Jonathan Doig paid to view and direct child abuse material in the Philippines

A former Greens candidate has been jailed for paying a poor child in the Philippines to create her own child abuse material for him over video calls.

A child in the Philippines who a former Greens candidate paid to engage in vile sexual acts, which he directed live on video calls, told him she needed the money for necessities like food, shelter and schooling, a court has heard.

In one instance, activist Jonathan Peter Doig, aged 59, paid a “paltry sum” of $36 to the 13-year-old for a sexual video, Judge Gina O’Rourke remarked during his sentencing proceedings in the Sydney District Court on Friday.

She said Doig, a private school and university-educated man, who took on Scott Morrison in the Liberal seat of Cook in 2019, had “clearly and abhorrently exploited the vulnerability of the child” who was of low socio-economic status.

Jonathan Doig has been sentenced to a maximum of nine years in prison. Picture: Joel Carrett

“(He) manipulated and used her vulnerability to satisfy his own pathetic and disgraceful sexual desires,” she told the court in her judgment.

She said he would have been aware of the “polar extremes of his own privileged life and a younger child he is giving money to”.

Judge O’Rourke sentenced Doig to a maximum of nine years in prison for the “nefarious and abhorrent” behaviour, with a five-a-half year non-parole period.

The father-of-one will be eligible for release on parole in June 2027.

Doig had previously pleaded guilty to procuring a child for sexual activity outside Australia, using a carriage service to transmit sexual abuse material of a child outside Australia, engaging in the persistent sexual abuse of a child outside Australia and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.

Jonathan Doig ran as a Greens candidate for the Liberal seat of Cook in 2019.

The offences were committed between August 23, 2019 — the day he first sent a payment to the child who contacted him on Facebook — and only ended with his arrest in June 2020.

Doig tried to tell the court he had initially handed over 21 payments to the child and two of her associates for “charitable purposes” from August 2019, before he received any child sexual abuse material in January the next year.

But Judge O’Rourke would not accept that and said once the pair were in communication, it was clear the victim regarded money as an allowance and even referred to Doig as “daddy”.

On Friday, the court heard the vile details of his activities with the child, which included video calls, messages and phone calls, and express money transfers for sexual videos.

When the child approached him for payments or an allowance, she told him she needed the money for school fees, dentist appointments, living expenses and to buy food for her family.

On three separate occasions, Doig used his Samsung phone to conduct video calls over Facebook messenger with the child.

She would engage in sexual activity while Doig watched in real time and would direct her to do what he wanted.

Jonathan Doig was arrested on June 10, 2020. Picture: Joel Carrett/AAP

In one of the videos, when the girl moves her body close to the camera, he “performs a licking motion” multiple times on the screen.

Doig took screen records of these video calls and stored them in a folder within a folder within a folder called “For JPD eyes only”.

Detectives found this child sexual abuse material when they searched Doig’s Gymea Bay home in June last year and seized a mobile phone, two laptops and a hard drive.

Judge O’Rourke said the sentence must be a warning to Doig about the “pernicious and evil trade in which he was participating” and denounce strongly the criminal behaviour.

She took into account his engagement in a self-funded sex offender program.

The Greens suspended Doig from the party after the charges were laid, saying in a statement: “The Greens deplore and condemn child sexual abuse and exploitation”.

He was also a prominent member of the Extinction Rebellion protest movement and was previously arrested following a protest.