NAMED: Wide Bay Burnett offenders caught with child abuse images
The sharing of child exploitation material continues to be a scourge across the Wide Bay and Burnett regions with illegal images found in the hands of these offenders. Warning: Distressing
Police & Courts
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Child exploitation material continues to be a scourge across the Wide Bay and Burnett regions with tens of thousands of the illegal images found in the hands of offenders across the region.
A cleaner caught with hundreds of images on his phone and a forklift driver who shared images on three different social apps are among the men and women sentenced in the region’s courts over the past two years.
Their cases were among more than 140 across Queensland which went to sentencing at the state’s courts across the 2022-24 financial years, according to publicly available Queensland sentencing data.
From the Queensland Sentencing Council’s figures, which record cases in which possession of child exploitation material was the most serious charge, 71 offenders were sentenced statewide in the 2023-24 financial year.
This was the second year in a row the number of sentenced offenders had declined, down from 102 in 2021-22.
However it was still a higher number of offenders than the courts had dealt with in any individual year prior to 2011.
The data does not include offenders charged with other more serious crimes alongside possession of the material.
The council’s website says it happened in more than half (51 per cent) of the total number of cases involving the offence sentenced in the state’s courts across the past five years.
Below are the men and women sentenced by the Wide Bay Burnett’s courts in the past two years, caught with exploitation material.
Mason Rose Keech Fuller — Bundaberg
A woman convicted of possessing child exploitation material was spared jail after a judge found exceptional circumstances in her case.
Mason Rose Fuller, who had no criminal history, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to possessing and distributing child exploitation material.
The court heard Fuller was in possession of disturbing videos reported to police via her Google, Facebook, and Snapchat accounts.
Police located the same disturbing material across multiple devices.
Judge Jennifer Rosengren described the content as “absolutely appalling”.
In a police interview on September 4, 2024, Fuller said she didn’t know how the material came to be on her phone.
But Judge Rosengren said that excuse would not be accepted again.
The court was told Fuller had been communicating with strangers online, including through group chats with people hiding behind bizarre usernames.
She said videos would randomly appear on her phone after she was added to chats and that she participated in conversations and shared content.
Judge Rosengren accepted that Fuller’s lack of criminal history and the psychiatric evidence amounted to exceptional circumstances, meaning she did not have to serve an actual prison term. Instead, she was placed on probation for two and a half years.
Thane Ian Grenenger — Hervey Bay
Just seven months after being released from prison for his vile collection of sexually explicit images of children, a Hervey Bay man was again caught with an arsenal of content depicting tiny, real-life victims.
He was also found to be reading child sex abuse blogs which included warnings of “hard rape and torture”.
Thane Ian Grenenger, 34, pleaded guilty in Hervey Bay District Court in June 2024 to one count of possessing child exploitation material while having a previous conviction.
The court heard Grenenger was a repeat offender and had been sentenced previously for the same offence in August 2021 after his collection of 348 videos and 910 images were found.
He was given a notional head sentence of five years in prison, but this was discounted by 25 per cent because of his early plea of guilty and a further 10 per cent for his level of co-operation with police.
He was therefore given a sentence of three years and three months with a fixed non parole period of 21 months, incorporating the remaining balance 12 months of the earlier sentence.
Grenenger will become eligible for parole March 14, 2026.
Heath Graham Williams - Hervey Bay
A cleaner who accessed hundreds of child abuse images on his phone also solicited images from a 16-year-old boy using Instagram, a court has been told.
Heath Graham Williams, 37, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material, using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material, using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material to self and possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service when he faced the Hervey Bay District Court in May 2024.
The court heard on June 8, 2023, police had conducted a search warrant at Williams’ home.
Officers examined his mobile and found child abuse material having accessed multiple websites using his phone on 131 occasions between March 17 and May 29, 2023 to view child abuse material, the court was told.
Judge Burnett sentenced Williams to 18 months in prison.
Williams was to be released after four months on a $1000 good behaviour bond, which would be in place for three years and he would also be under the supervision of a probation officer.
Daniel Joseph Cotter - Hervey Bay
The discovery of a single photo led to a convicted child sex offender being sentenced to three years in prison.
Daniel Joseph Cotter, 58, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing or controlling child exploitation material when he faced Hervey Bay District Court in May 2024.
The court heard Cotter’s status as a reportable offender meant he was subjected to searches of his devices on request, which was exactly what happened the day the photo was found.
Cotter’s defence barrister said the offence consisted of one photo which was comparatively low level offending.
Judge Michael Burnett sentenced Cotter to three years, three months and 15 days in prison with a fixed non-parole period of three months.
Nigel Patrick Brady - Maryborough
A convicted child rapist with a history of stealing women’s underwear returned to court for possessing child exploitation material and stalking.
Nigel Patrick Brady, 44, pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material, unlawful stalking, possessing dangerous drugs, trespassing and stealing when he faced Maryborough District Court in May 2024.
The court heard Brady’s home was searched by police on June 14, 2023, during which his phone, laptop and a portable hard drive were seized.
An analysis of the device revealed 240 images, many of them duplicates. There were 71 unique images and 27 videos, the court was told.
Judge Loury said Brady needed to be supervised in the community and to achieve that she put him on two years’ probation and a three-year suspended jail sentence, given he had already spent 10 months in jail.
Daniel Patrick Gall - Bundaberg
Daniel Patrick Gall, 47, pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court in September 2023 to charges including accessing and possessing child exploitation and child abuse material.
Crown prosecutor Annica Fritz told the court in April 2022 police identified Gall had been accessing online child exploitation material and searched his house later that day, seizing a number of devices containing child exploitation material, including Motorola Edge and Telstra smartphones, a desktop computer, external hard drive and tablets.
A total of 24,940 images and video files were contained across all devices, of which police analysed a selected sample due to the large quantity of files.
Their analysis identified 2688 images and 2799 videos containing child exploitation material, including a video of a child between three or four years old and many images and videos of children aged between six and 13 focusing on their genitalia or showing the children involved in sexual acts.
For offences including one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material, two counts of using a carriage service to access child abuse material, one count of possessing child exploitation material and one count of attempting to pervert justice, Gall was given a head sentence of five years in prison with immediate release on parole due to 492 days served in pre-sentence custody.
Steven Campbell Duff - Maryborough
A man who watched sadistic videos of toddlers being sexually abused was sentenced in Maryborough District Court in August 2023.
Steven Campbell Duff, 30, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to one count of possessing child exploitation material when he faced the court.
The court heard police found the images after executing a search warrant at the home where Duff was living.
Some of the videos showed toddlers being sexually abused, with Crown Prosecutor Farook Anoozer calling some of them “the most vile examples of child exploitation material”.
Judge David Kent said there had been 21 videos in the most serious category of child abuse material and 11 in category two.
“The material was serious. The children were as young as toddlers and sadism was involved,” Judge Kent said.
For the possession of child exploitation material, Duff was sentenced to the 157 days he had already served and placed on probation for two years.
Cameron Joseph Martin - Bundaberg
A Bundaberg man caught grooming a 14 year old girl by an undercover police operation was found to have sexually explicit videos involving girls as young as five years old, a Bundaberg court heard.
Cameron Joseph Martin, 37, pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court in April 2024 to offences including possessing child exploitation material and grooming a child under the age of 16 years.
Crown prosecutor Jodie Tame told the court that on March 5, 2023 Martin responded to an advertisement posted on the classifieds website Locanto by Task Force Argos officers.
Purporting to be posted by an adult woman named Stacey, the advertisement said “mum and young daughter will be travelling up to Bondi and hope to have some fun”, the court heard.
Under questioning Martin admitted attempting to meet a child at the motel and to having child pornography on his phone.
Upon searching his phone police found an a child exploitation image and video, with the latter showing a pre-pubescent girl involved in sexual acts.
A search of Martin’s laptop at his home uncovered 22 child exploitation videos.
Judge Allen ordered Martin serve a head sentence of three years and six months, with immediate eligibility for parole due to 374 days served in pre-sentence custody.
Martin was convicted of three counts of possession child exploitation material, three counts of failing to comply with reporting and one count of grooming a child under 16 years.
Kenneth Hugh Douglas - Gympie
A 70-year-old man who heinously raped two young boys multiple times, giving one Viagra without telling him what it was, was thrown behind bars for more than a decade over his “predatory” behaviour.
Kenneth Hugh Douglas’s shocking series of crimes against the youths was revealed during a two-hours-long sentencing at Gympie District Court in March 2025 while the victims and their family members were present.
Crown prosecutor Alex Stark said Douglas had engaged in “predatory exploitation” and “corruption” of the boys.
Mr Stark said this included taking photos of the boy while he slept and committing a gross act over him, only interrupted when the victim woke up.
Douglas, who had spent 593 days in presentence custody, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of rape, three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, and making and possessing child exploitation material.
He sentenced Douglas to 12 years’ jail and declared him a serious violent offender which required the 70-year-old to serve 80 per cent of his sentence before being eligible for release on parole.
Michael Coyne - Bundaberg
A convicted Victorian pedophile was busted in Queensland with hundreds of child exploitation videos and images, some of which featured victims as young as two.
The extent of Michael Coyne’s latest crimes was only discovered after the lifelong reportable sex offender failed to disclose a new email address to police.
Bundaberg District Court heard in April 2025 a forensic search of the phone uncovered a total of 370 “unique” videos and photos of explicit material.
Coyne, who was 70 at the time of the offending, admitted to police he also shared some of the material with an adult woman from whom he hoped to gain sexual favours.
Among the files found on Coyne’s mobile phone were 81 considered to be in one of the highest categories offending while a remaining 283 images and six videos were determined to be in category one.
Judge John Allen said the files contained “pre-pubescent males and females” aged between six to eight years old, but also as young as two.
He pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material, one count of distributing child exploitation material, and one count of failing to report and was sentenced in to a total of 16 months’ jail with an order to serve a third of it.
The sentence would then suspended for an operational period of two years, and he would remain subject to child sex offender reporting conditions on release.
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David Matthew Wilson - Bundaberg
A Bundaberg father of four pleaded guilty to possessing more than 1000 pieces of child exploitation material, claiming he thought downloading was legal since he understood streaming was not penalised.
David Matthew Wilson represented himself in Bundaberg District Court in September 2024 when he pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing child exploitation material.
He claimed he was not sound of mind at the time of the offence on February 26, 2024, as he had not been taking medication to treat his schizophrenia.
Crown Prosecutor Sandra Cupina told the court the 37-year-old had an extensive history with prior drug offending, trespassing, dishonesty, domestic violence and assault charges.
She said police executed a search warrant at Wilson’s Bundaberg home where they seized two mobile phones.
On these they found a “very large number of child exploitation (images)” Ms Cupina said.
She explained that of the 2000 clips downloaded, more than 1000 contained “unique child exploitation material”.
Judge Allen acknowledged Wilson’s early guilty plea, noting the maximum penalty for the charge was 14 years of imprisonment.
He sentenced Wilson to 112 days’ jail, time served with immediate parole release and placed him on probation for two and a half years.
Brian John Newton - South Burnett
A South Burnett forklift driver was busted with hundreds of exploitation photos and videos depicting children as young as newborn, which he shared on an encrypted social media application.
Brian John Newton’s offending was uncovered by police investigating the use of an encrypted messaging service called Viber in October 2023, published court sentencing documents said.
Newton was a member of at least three groups on the app which were exchanging the illicit images.
The 47-year-old’s home was then searched by police, during which Newton handed his phone to officers.
They found Viber had been downloaded on to the device, and two chats on the app had exchanges of video footage of men performing sex acts on children as young as three months’ old, Kingaroy District Court heard.
Newton pleaded guilty in February 2025 to possessing child exploitation material, distributing child exploitation material, and distributing it using an anonymising service.
Judge Rosengren sentenced him to three years’ jail, suspended for five years after eight months was served.
Dylan Travis Nottle - Gympie
A young Gympie tradie has used an autism diagnosis to try to explain why he solicited naked pictures from several teenage boys over social media.
Dylan Travis Nottle’s more than year-long offending was uncovered by police when they carried out a search of his Southside home in July 2023, Gympie District Court in March 2025.
The 24-year-old Southside man exchanged hundreds of messages on Snapchat with five teenagers from November 2021 to February 2023.
The court heard the ages of these boys ranged from 15 to 16 years, although some told Nottle they were one or two years older.
Nottle exchanged hundreds of messages with the boys, who sent him naked images of themselves.
During the search of Nottle’s home police found a hard drive with 219 files including videos, the court heard.
These videos included footage of pre-pubescent boys engaged in sex acts with adult men.
Nottle pleaded guilty to five counts of using a carriage service to transmit the child abuse material to himself, and one count of possessing or accessing the material through the use of the carriage service.
Judge Cash sentenced Nottle to two years’ jail, with six months to be served before his release on a $1000 recognisance bond.
Nottle would then need to remain on good behaviour for the next two years.
Khama-i McLennan-Perry - Bundaberg
A 27-year-old Bundaberg man caught with more than two dozen child exploitation images on his mobile phone avoided jail time after a court found exceptional circumstances.
Khama-i McLennan-Perry was caught with the images during a police search of his home on June 5, 2023.
Published court documents said officers identified 25 exploitation pictures on the device, 23 of which fell into category one of Interpol’s baseline system.
The category identifies images of real children under the age of 13.
The court documents from the October 2024 sentencing said these pictures included girls “participating in penetrative sexual acts with adults”.
Justice John Allen found there were exceptional circumstances which meant jail was not mandated in McLennan-Perry’s case.
These included the low number of images in his possession, and his previous compliance with the probation order handed down for the drug offences.
McLennan-Perry, who pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child exploitation material, was placed on two years’ probation.
A conviction was recorded and Justice Allen ordered the mobile phone be forfeited.
Leslie James Kyte - Maryborough
As he sat in a prison cell where he was in custody for the sexually abuse of a young boy, a convicted child sex predator wrote down his vile fantasies in four notebooks – 57 pages in total.
It was the discovery of that notebook which landed him back before court in August 2023.
Leslie James Kyte, 70, pleaded guilty to making child exploitation material when he faced Maryborough District Court with Crown prosecutor Farook Anoozer saying a search while Kyte was in custody uncovered the handwritten stories describing sexual acts by underage boys.
A little more than one year earlier, in April 2022, Kyte pleaded guilty at the Bundaberg District Court to three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, one count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, one count of making child exploitation material, two counts of possessing child exploitation material, one count of distributing child exploitation material, one count of using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and one count of intended indecent treatment of a child under 12.
Judge David Kent said during the 2023 sentencing Kyte had himself been abused as a child and had an offer of accommodation and employment near Gladstone upon his release.
Kyte was sentenced to 148 days in prison and ordered to serve two years on probation upon his release.
He was made immediately eligible for parole.
Jarrod Andrew Swanson - Nanango
A Nanango man who previously said he did not get sexual enjoyment out of sharing and possessing child exploitation material nonetheless pleaded guilty to new sickening charges of the offence – for the third time in five years.
Jarrod Andrew Swanson, 42, pleaded guilty to one count each of making child exploitation material, contravening a requirement from a police officer by refusing to produce a digital device, giving false or misleading information to police, and failing to comply with reporting by not disclosing social media accounts when he faced Kingaroy District Court in May 2025.
The court heard police searched Swanson’s address on September 16, 2024 after concerns were raised.
When questioned Swanson told officers he had lost his mobile phone several weeks earlier and didn’t use a specific email address police had on file for him.
The court heard both claims were found to be lies and his phone was soon located in the fireplace.
It heard he also lied to police about the social media and messaging apps he had downloaded onto the phone, which violated his reporting requirements.
When police analysed the Nokia phone, they found a Google Chat from earlier that month where Swanson had exchanged “messages of a sexual nature” with another person, who has not been identified.
Crown prosecutor Toby Corsbie told the court the unidentified person in the chat allegedly had access to a four-year-old girl and the two shared messages about what they wanted to do to the child.
Judge Heaton took the 247 days Swanson had already served into consideration and sentenced him to two and a half years jail with a parole release date of September 15, 2025.
Convictions were recorded.
Michael Allan Palmer - Kingaroy
A 39-year-old Kingaroy man who was accused of 19 stomach-turning charges when his case was heard in Kingaroy District Court in February 2025.
Michael Allan Palmer pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 of or above 12 (indecent film etc), one count of possessing child exploitation material, three counts of aggravated supply of dangerous drugs to a minor 16 years or more, and three counts of sexual assault.
On Thursday, February 27, Judge Glen Cash sentenced Palmer to 18 months jail for his crimes.
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