Simon Alexander Cuthbert in Bundaberg District Court over child exploitation

A Queensland repeat sex offender with a sordid history of ‘florid fantasies’ has been sentenced for his latest grotesque crimes involving child abuse material.  

A Bundaberg man has been jailed for his child exploitation offences.

A Bundaberg man, with a sordid interest in child exploitation, has been jailed after the sickening details of his offending were detailed in the district court.

Simon Alexander Cuthbert, 52, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of using electronic communications to procure a child under 16, one count of producing child exploitation material and one count of distributing child exploitation material.

The court heard the charge of distributing child exploitation material related to the period between January 9, 2021 and February 9, 2021, when Cuthbert shared stories written from the perspective of a child abuser with other adults on social media app Snapchat.

The charge of producing child exploitation material related to the period from February 13, 2019 to December 8, 2020, where Cuthbert engaged in an explicit group chat with other adults fantasising about abusing girls as young as five.

The third charge of procuring a person under 16 related to the time period from February 13, 2019 to December 8, 2020, where Cuthbert used social media site Tumblr to talk to a 13-year-old girl, who he sent explicit photos to.

The court heard Cuthbert also instructed the girl and directed her to abuse her younger sister.

The court further heard that when Cuthbert gave police access to his mobile phone, he warned them there would be some “dodgy stuff” on it.

Bundaberg Court House.

Cuthbert, a thickset man with a grey beard, sat in the dock as details of his prior offending were laid out by Judge Leanne Clare.

“Fourteen years earlier, for an extended time, you engaged in similar conduct, what the judge, at the time, called ‘florid sexual fantasies’, you were a married man then … you had been accessing graphic images of child sexual abuse and you sent them to another person,” she said.

“You showed interest in accessing a woman’s children for (sexual abuse). Unbeknown to you, that mother was actually an undercover agent.

“You were sentenced for those things back in 2008, then you were a first-time offender.

“You didn't have a criminal history and the conviction was based on your own confession. You had said the shame would make you stop for a while, but you claim that going back to do the same things was ‘almost compulsive’.”

References tendered to the court showed Cuthbert had been well regarded by his family and friends away from his sordid online life.

Ms Clare said Cuthbert would remain a risk of further offending unless he received rehabilitation targeting his perverted interests in children.

“There must be a significant period of imprisonment,” she said.

Cuthbert was sentenced to two years’ in jail for each count.

He will be eligible for parole on October 2, 2022.

Cuthbert’s phone was forfeited.

Originally published as Simon Alexander Cuthbert in Bundaberg District Court over child exploitation