Cairns courts: How police operation uncovered vile schemes of ‘drugs for sex’ with kids

When detectives responded to a child suffering a meth overdose who’d been injected by a nurse, little did they know it would snowball into an operation involving 54 children. SPECIAL REPORT

Detective Senior Constable Nicole Barnes from the Child protection and Investigation Unit. Picture: Emily Barker.

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When detectives responded to reports of a child suffering a meth overdose who had been injected by a nurse, little did they know it would snowball into an operation involving 54 children.

Veteran Cairns District Child Protection Investigation Unit Detective Senior Constable Nicole Barnes said it was challenging gaining the trust of vulnerable children, many of whom had experience in the justice system on youth crime charges.

A horrifying pattern of exploitation of vulnerable children as young as 11 years old has unfolded in several cases in the Cairns Supreme Court as some of those charged as a result of the operation have been sentenced.

The court has heard how children with nowhere safe to call home were offered meals, meth and cannabis, with some of the adults seeking sexual favours, or, bizarrely, just a vile mateship with the children, in a few instances.

“The information we had was that a child had been injected by a nurse, that’s what kicked it off (the operation), we went to that child, and the child disclosed more things that we slowly unpicked, and it just snowballed into this big operation investigating all the things that were going on that we really didn’t know about previously,” Detective Barnes said.

Detective Senior Constable Nicole Barnes from the Child Protection and Investigation Unit. Picture Emily Barker.

Operation Uniform Kalahari was founded to investigate allegations that men and women were exploiting young people by providing them with drugs, some of them for either sexual favours or material things, and it expanded to include investigations into the production and distribution of child exploitation material.

Detectives have charged 11 men and two women with a total of 301 offences, involving 54 child victims, and the operation is ongoing.

“A lot of these kids don’t have good relationships with police, so it took a lot of effort for me and my team to build those relationships with them to get them to trust us, to believe that they can talk to us, and that we would look out for them, because they don’t really experience the other side of the police system,” Detective Barnes said.

She said the extent of the child exploitation material unearthed in some of the cases, and the brutality it depicted, was not surprising.

“I’ve been in this game a long time now and I’ve been in CPIU for eight years,” Detective Barnes said.

“Yeah, we do have to look at it, which is very confronting, and I guess we all have our own ways of processing it and building our own resilience around that sort of stuff – like it’s nothing new to us, we do it, that is our daily job, that’s what we’ve signed on to do.”

But she was surprised by the seeming abundance of meth.

“And the way that it was traded, for lack of a better word – there was no organisation to it between offenders, it was just very random,” she said.

Detective Barnes said police were “very satisfied” with the work they had done.

“So far our conviction rate has been 100 per cent,” she said.

“We just want to keep on top of it and try to support these young people as much as we can.”

She said the relationship between kids living rough and police had dramatically improved.

“They’re offenders themselves in other regards, but they’re always very polite to us now, and they will talk to us, we’ve definitely built long term relationships.

“We have applauded those kids that have come forward because we know it’s a big deal to come and talk to police, especially from their backgrounds – we aren’t trusted, so we know how hard it is for those kids and how brave they have to be to come forward,” Detective Barnes said.

“We will listen, we will take their reports, we will give them the time of day.”

The hospitalised child revealed information that led to the conviction of nurse Shantali Suzann Bramble, 39, who pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years. There is no suggestion she engaged in any sexual wrongdoing in relation to the child.

Shantali Suzann Bramble was sentenced to 16 months in prison for injecting a girl repeatedly with meth. Picture: Supplied

She was sentenced last November, with the court hearing the girl had told her she was only 15 years, and the nurse’s offending was brazen.

She told the girl because she was a nurse, she knew what she was doing, and injected her four or five times one evening and again the following morning.

The court heard the nurse and the girl went to Cairns Night Markets – and in the presence of the child’s father, she again injected the girl.

Justice James Henry sentenced her to 16 months’ prison.

“You of all people know it wreaks havoc on lives and misery on families,” Justice Henry said.

“Worse still, for some users it has the effect of significant aggression, paranoia and resultant violence against quite innocent members of the community, sometimes with appalling results, as homicide trials in the last couple of decades demonstrate, catastrophic results from time to time,” he said.

The second woman arrested, Crystal Gypsy Shaw, 33, gave meth to minors including a pregnant teen.

Crystal Gypsy Shaw convicted in February this year by Queensland Chief Justice Helen Bowskill on charges including five counts of supplying minors aged over 16 with meth. Picture: Supplied

She was convicted in February this year by Queensland Chief Justice Helen Bowskill on charges including five counts of supplying minors aged over 16 with meth.

“You were discovered as part of a police operation I have learned about being in Cairns this week, which is really, really distressing, to be honest with you, such conduct going on that there is a police operation into drugs offered or sexual favours,” Judge Bowskill said. 

There is no suggestion Shaw engaged in any sexual wrongdoing in relation to the child.

Justice Bowskill sentenced Shaw, who had similar previous convictions, to two years in prison.

A third woman was not charged, but appallingly, Cairns Supreme Court heard she’d allowed a 26-year-old man carnal knowledge of her 14-year-old daughter and to supply the girl with cannabis. 

Cairns Child Protection and Investigation Unit (CPIU) detectives arrest a man during Operation Uniform Kalahari. Picture: Queensland Police

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to 29 charges involving two minors.

Charges included carnal knowledge, indecent treatment, grooming, using the internet to procure children under 16, engaging with penile intercourse with a child under 16, indecent filming, creating child exploitation material, grooming a child or parent to procure a child to engage in a sex act, and supplying dangerous drugs to minors under 16.

The court heard there were three instances of unlawful penetration.

Defence barrister Kylie Mythen’s submission raised the ire of the state’s chief justice when Ms Mythen stated one of the girls “was a willing participant, she provided consent”.

“They are not in a position to make an informed free choice about what they are doing with their bodies, and our society says that you are an adult, and adults in our community have to be responsible enough to make better choices,” Justice Bowskill said.

The man received three years for carnal knowledge and two years for grooming, to be served cumulatively.

Operation Uniform Kalahari uncovered adults enticing minors with drugs. Picture: File photo

Brian Peter Hepburn, 73, injected a 16-year-old girl with methylamphetamine and made sexual advances towards her, the Cairns Supreme Court heard when he was sentenced last June.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, four counts of supplying a dangerous drug to a child under 16 and indecent treatment of a child under 16.

Brian Peter Hepburn pleaded guilty to multiple charges after being arrested as part of Operation Uniform Kalahari. Picture: Supplied

Woree carpenter Ian Alexander Peachey, 53, lured five boys aged between 13 and 16 with offers of cannabis, trips to swimming pools, and fishing expeditions, and one-on-one camping trips. He gave the boys the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

The former Mad Cow security guard was convicted last October of four acts of indecent treatment of four boys under the age of 16 and one for sexual assault with a minor over the age of 16 – a girl, and three grooming offences.

The court heard he drove the girl to Innisfail and told her that if she did not perform sexual acts on him, he wouldn’t take her home.

Peachey also faced 10 charges for supplying drugs to a minor under 16 and eight charges for providing a minor under 18 drugs.

One of the victim’s testimonies was read out in court and said he was vulnerable because “his parents had let him down”.

“I felt you saw my vulnerability and capitalised on this. I used to trust you, and you betrayed my trust,” the testimony said.

“I’m embarrassed and ashamed of the darkness you have let into my life.”

Ian Alexander Peachey received a head sentence of four and a half years in prison. Picture: Supplied

Another told the court he had developed drug addictions in the wake of Mr Peachey’s introductions to illicit substances.

“I wasted a lot of my childhood hanging around you, and I will never get that back.”

Justice Henry said Peachey preyed on vulnerable children for his own gratification and handed down a head sentence of four-and-a-half years in prison.

The sleazy modus operandi of Anton Gerard Straatman, 59, who was convicted and sentenced last December, involved hanging out in his LandCruiser around Cairns, ready to offer drugs to girls as young as 11 and take them to a nearby motel room. 

Straatman, who befriended nine girls over a period of 14 months, received a head sentence of four years.

On June 9, 2022, Cairns Child Protection and Investigation Unit detectives charged a 67-year-old Cairns man with alleged child sex offences as part of ongoing Operation Uniform Kalahari. Picture: Supplied

He pleaded guilty to one count of grooming a girl under 16 to procure sex, which took place over a year, six counts of indecent treatment, one count of attempted indecent treatment, 19 counts of aggravated supply of drugs to minors under 16 and 15 counts of supplying drugs to minors.

Straatman offered the girls cannabis and meth and encouraged them to come back to his motel room at Crystal Garden Resort on James St, where rooms are advertised for $71 per night.

Principal crown prosecutor Aaron Dunkerton said Straatman had an arrangement where he could text the motel owner and organise a room at short notice. The motel owner was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Anton Gerard Straatman, 59, encouraged girls to come back with him to a Crystal Garden Resort on James St, where rooms are advertised for $71 per night. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Dunkerton said the offending was unearthed while one of the nine girls was in hospital.

In February this year it was revealed Apollo John Daley, 39, who pleaded guilty to 44 charges ranging from possession of meth to supplying and injecting children as young as 12 with meth, took youths to spots including the Treehouse Playground on the Esplanade to inject them.

There was no sexual motivation behind his offending.

The charges involved 10 victims.

Apollo John Daley, 37, has been charged with 18 counts of aggravated supply of dangerous drugs to a minor and indecent treatment of children. Picture: Facebook

He met the children at spots such as a house known as the Pink Palace in Pease St at Manunda, where a 15-year-old asked him for meth and he then asked the youth did he want to try a “red” – a term for IV use.

Many of the youngsters had been previously exposed to meth or had used it, but Daley introduced them to IV use, the court heard.

He injected children at places including behind Gilligan’s nightclub, near the casino, behind the IGA at Edge Hill, in several houses in Swallow St at Mooroobool, and at Esplanade playgrounds.

Justice Henry said Daley had corrupted children not old enough to make proper and informed decisions.

He imposed a head sentence of three years and nine months.

Michael Arthur Sale pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge with a child under 16, assault, two charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, and one charge of using the internet to procure children under 16. There was no suggestion in court that he offered drugs to the girl.

Prosecutor Tim Watkins said Sale was “living rough” and so was the girl when they had consensual intercourse, but afterwards he sent her explicit texts seeking another interaction with her.

The court heard Sale became jealous of other men including the girl’s father and sent the girl menacing and harassing messages, and whipped her with a phone cable.

He received a 20 month head sentence.

Children as young as 11 years were injected with meth by those who sought to exploit them, Operation Uniform Kalahari discovered. Picture: File photo

Anton Ford, 42, was arrested in November 2022 and remanded in custody on 11 charges of aggravated supply of drugs to a minor. He was not charged with sexual offences.

He was sentenced by Justice James Henry in Cairns Supreme Court in February to a head sentence of two years and nine months’ imprisonment.

Weipa businessman Bradley Allen McRae, 46, was initially charged with two counts of rape, five counts of procuring a young person, one count of grooming a child, 10 counts of supply dangerous drugs to a minor, and two counts each of indecent treatment of a child under 16, and unlawful carnal knowledge of a child under 16.

Cairns may seem glamorous at night, but Waterfront panorama by night, but Cairns Child Protection and Investigation Unit have uncovered a seamy underbelly where minors are exploited. Picture: Supplied

Bradley Allen McRae faced multiple charges but was reported dead on November 14, 2023. Picture: Supplied

McRae was further charged with five counts of supply dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years, 10 counts of use carriage service to access child abuse material and one count of possess child abuse material.

Police alleged he supplied children with meth.

He was reported dead on November 14.

Police confirmed the death was not suspicious.

Originally published as Cairns courts: How police operation uncovered vile schemes of ‘drugs for sex’ with kids