NAMED: Sunshine Coast men caught with child abuse images
The possession of child exploitation material continues to be a scourge on the Sunshine Coast with illegal images found in the hands of these offenders. Warning: Distressing
Police & Courts
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The exploitation of children online and the market it fuels continues to be a scourge in Australia with the awful files making their way in the hands of offenders on the Sunshine Coast.
A former wildlife volunteer and a disgraced teacher aide caught with images and videos depicting the abuse of children are among the men sentenced in the region’s courts over the past two years.
Below are the perpetrators sentenced by the Maroochydore District Court in the past two years, caught with exploitation material.
Evan Andre Albertyn
A former farm worker was jailed after his stash of child abuse material was uncovered by police.
Evan Andre Albertyn was living in a tent in the lead up to his sentence after the disturbing images and pictures were unearthed on his computer on July 6 last year.
The 34-year-old was put away behind bars following his pleas of guilty to using a carriage service to access child abuse material and possessing child exploitation material.
Legal officer Liam Dennis told Maroochydore District Court how Albertyn came to the attention of police after he was identified as using a BitTorrent network to access heinous files of children being abused.
Police raided his parent’s Beerwah home where they found he accessed and downloaded 583 files of child abuse material between May 8 and July 1 last year.
Judge Vicki Loury said 96gb of child exploitation files were found which included 320 images and 263 videos.
Mr Dennis said the files depicted boys and girls anywhere from 12-months-old to 16-years-old being sexually abused.
The Beerwah man was granted watch-house bail which he had been on until his sentence in late June.
The District Court Judge stated the crime of possessing those files was said to be “callous and predatory” and ordered him to serve six months of a two year jail sentence.
After his release from jail he will be placed on a good behaviour order.
David Ross Phillips
A Beerwah occupational health and safety worker has been sent to prison after using a female persona as an instrument to groom a mother online to allow him to sexually abuse their daughter.
Little did David Ross Phillips know he was in fact talking to an undercover police officer, which resulted in his arrest on multiple heinous charges involving the soliciting and possession of child abuse files.
Detectives would later raid Phillips’ home where, during a six-hour search, they found images and videos on his devices depicting the heinous abuse of children from newborns up to 10 years old.
His offending and the effects of it were heard in the Maroochydore District Court following guilty pleas to several charges including grooming of a parent to facilitate child sexual abuse, possessing child exploitation material, and using a carriage service to solicit and transmit child abuse material.
Judge Long said the Beerwah man’s crimes were not victimless but depicted the heinous abuse of children.
Phillips was jailed for four years, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
Matt Campbell
A former wildlife volunteer will not spend time in jail after an anonymous tip off to police uncovered his child exploitation material stash.
It was a call to Crime Stoppers on May 15, 2023 that led detectives to the Maroochydore home of Matt Campbell where the revolting files of child abuse were found.
Maroochydore District Court was told the 37-year-old’s home was raided by police almost two months later on July 11, 2023 while he and his partner were home.
Crown prosecutor Caleb Theunissen said police seized two laptops, a USB and an external hard drive which contained child exploitation material.
The court was told detectives found hundreds of child exploitation material images and dozens of videos, which the Maroochydore man had in his possession from November 1, 2019 to July 12, 2023.
Mr Theunissen said the files were of an “extremely graphic” and “particularly vulgar” nature committed against very young children as young as five years old.
The files were too horrid to describe and it was unknown how Campbell came into possession of them.
He was later charged with possessing child exploitation material, which he pleaded guilty to in court.
Judge Terry Gardiner accepted Campbell’s remorse but said the 37-year-old’s offending created a market for the depiction of child abuse.
He however believed the 37-year-old’s ailments meant there were exceptional circumstances for him not to spend time behind bars.
Campbell was jailed for 15 months, but this was immediately suspended for three years.
Jacques Van Niekerk
A former jet ski hire business owner has languished in jail for more than a year after his predatory sexual abuse of two young girls during a ride on his aquatic crafts was uncovered.
Judge Vicki Loury KC said Jacques Van Niekerk orchestrated for the two young girls, aged just 10 and 11, to ride with him during jet ski rides at his Sunshine Coast business in late 2023 and early 2024 which enabled the deviant offences to occur.
Maroochydore District Court was told the extent of the South African-born man’s crimes earlier this year after his pleas of guilty to two counts of indecent treatment of children, two of making child exploitation material, and one each of possessing child exploitation material and contravening an order to open his phone.
Crown prosecutor Joshua Morris said the offending involved Van Niekerk indecently touched and took photos of the two young girls during jet ski rides booked by their families.
The Mooloolah Valley man’s heinous crimes against children were only uncovered when his wife at the time found a video of the second victim on his phone and reported it to authorities.
Police raided Van Niekerk’s former business on February 3 and found 100 images of both young girls and six videos which equated to child exploitation material.
He was remanded in custody where he spent 16 and a half months behind bars before his sentence hearing.
Van Niekerk was jailed for four-and-a-half years, but due to 506 days behind bars, he was given a parole eligibility date of the sentence date.
Boden Ashworth
A former teacher’s aide has denied having a sexual interest in children despite being found with covert images of young school students using the bathroom.
Maroochydore District Court heard how Boden Reece Ashworth, 27, used his position at schools and after-school care to take images and a video of at least four schoolchildren’s genitalia on dates between 2017 and 2022.
Crown prosecutor Michael Gawrych said Ashworth’s disturbing offending came to light when Task Force Argos detectives found him trying to upload an indecent video of a child to a Google Drive.
Police raided his home in late 2022 and scoured through his phone where they found several pictures of private parts from six young children on a secure photo vault app.
Ashworth pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 by taking photographs and one of possessing child exploitation material.
He was jailed for two and a half years, to be suspended after he served six months’ jail. He was also placed on a three year probation order.
Frederick James Bishop
A Beerwah courier was released from custody after a police raid on his home found he was sending child abuse material to others on encrypted apps and social media.
Frederick James Bishop was able to leave Maroochydore District Court a free man after spending about 11 months on remand following a search warrant on his Beerwah home on August 25, 2023.
Commonwealth prosecutor Daniel Trigger said 16 child abuse material files were found on a Samsung hard drive as well as on Bishop’s Session account, which is an encrypted and anonymising instant messaging platform.
Bishop also accessed written child abuse material stories and used encrypted applications Telegram and Session to search for disgusting images and videos of young boys.
Police discovered the 45-year-old had also sent child abuse material files to 32 users on 53 occasions through Telegram, Session and Instagram between January 18, 2023 and August 21, 2023.
The Beerwah man was arrested and spent 342 days in custody up until his sentence where he pleaded guilty to possessing, accessing and transmitting child abuse material.
The Beerwah man was jailed for two years and six months, with 342 days of custody declared as time served.
Bishop was released into the community that day to be of good behaviour for three years on a recognisance order.
Glen Michael Stair
A Nambour man convicted of possessing thousands of files containing child abuse material has been sentenced in a Maroochydore court.
Glen Michael Stair, 48, appeared in the Maroochydore District Court in July last year where he pleaded guilty to five charges of possessing, accessing and transmitting child abuse material over a period of one year.
Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions prosecutor Mathew Thompson told the court Stair had finished parole for separate charges approximately one month before the offences regarding child abuse material began to take place between September 2020 and October 2021.
“The parole for the order finished on August 2020 and the first offence before your honour today was committed in September of 2020,” Mr Thompson said.
Mr Thompson told the court Stair told federal police officers he had lost his phone when they interviewed him after they searched his property and uncovered seven devices that contained child abuse material.
“In total there were 5366 files possessed across seven devices,” Mr Thompson said.
Defence barrister Robert Glenday told the court Stair had a methamphetamine problem and was engaged with a psychologist for PTSD.
“His criminal history is predominantly drugs and dishonesty type offences,” Mr Glenday said.
Maroochydore District judge Gary Long told the court the material depicted the “egregiousness of the abuse of vulnerable members of the community”.
“The only appropriate method of dealing with you is to impose sentences of imprisonment,” Mr Long said.
Mr Long sentenced Stair to two-and-a-half years’ prison, released immediately with a recognisance payment of $1000 and two years of supervision by a parole officer.
Stair had spent 255 days in pre-sentence custody.
Scott Thomas Griffiths
A Noosaville restaurant owner and father-of-two’s fall from grace has played out in court after he was busted accessing child abuse websites.
Scott Thomas Griffiths, 44, pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to access child abuse material as he appeared for his sentencing in the Maroochydore District Court in late 2023.
The restaurateur was busted having accessed 31 websites containing child abuse material which were described in court as being of “significant depravity”.
The court was told the offences had occurred in July 2022.
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks said police found two child abuse videos in Griffiths’ possession as well as 31 websites containing child exploitation material on his browser history.
Griffiths was sentenced to nine months’ jail for the both the charges, for one charge the sentence was suspended immediately and for the second charge he agreed to enter into recognisance of $1000.
A conviction was recorded.
Tommy Lewis
A Diamond Valley man was jailed after hoarding thousands of files of child abuse which led to a prominent university office being raided.
Tommy Lewis’ legal team accepted there were no exceptional reasons why he should not spend time in custody after pleading guilty to possessing child exploitation material in the Maroochydore District Court in 2024.
The married Diamond Valley man sat in the dock as crown prosecutor Alex Stark told the court how the 45-year-old was found in possession of 2200 files of child exploitation he collected from February 23, 2013 to November 2, 2022.
Mr Stark said Lewis was employed at the University of the Sunshine Coast in its Forest Institute when his home was raided by police in late 2022, where two laptops and external hard drives were seized and analysed.
The court heard Lewis denied using the laptop to access child exploitation material and claimed it was a family computer.
Four days later detectives raided his workplace to find a thumb drive which had more child exploitation files inside.
Mr Stark said the Diamond Valley man used an internet application called FreeNet, a site which allowed for users to share files anonymously, to download zip files over almost a decade.
Lewis was jailed for 18 months, to be suspended after he served four months in custody.
David Slyderink
A once respected IT worker contracted to work at the University of the Sunshine Coast was jailed after admitting to trying to procure two children from an undercover operative and engaging in heinous child sexual abuse chats online.
David Slyderink’s perverted conversations were aired in Maroochydore District Court in January following his pleas of guilty to grooming a carer of a child for a sexual act along with distributing and possessing child exploitation material.
Crown prosecutor Alex Stark said the 52-year-old worked as a contractor for the tertiary institution at Sippy Downs when he began to speak to an undercover police officer, who purported to be a 38-year-old living in South Australia.
Over the span of a month in mid-2023, Mr Stark said Slyderink was “proactive” when he spoke to the operative about sexual abuse of children.
Slyderink’s disturbing conversations were referred to Queensland Police and his hinterland home was raided in July, 2023 where 70 child exploitation images and videos were found on his electronic devices, which were a mix of real and computer generated material.
Slyderink was jailed for 18 months, to be suspended after he served five months.
Scott Douglas Fowler
A 44-year-old Gold Coast man sobbed and hugged his parents in a Sunshine Coast courtroom after he was jailed for a stash of almost 1500 photos and videos of child abuse material.
Scott Douglas Fowler’s parents and ex-partner supported him in the public gallery of the Maroochydore District Court in 2023 as disturbing details about his arrest as part of Taskforce Argos were shared.
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks told the court 1429 images and 29 videos of child abuse material were found after detectives seized a computer tower, laptop, hard drive and USB stick from Fowler’s Bli Bli home on October 8, 2022.
Ms Marks said the content included children as young as two years old and one of the videos appeared to be from a hidden camera in a girls’ changing room.
Fowler pleaded guilty to one charge each of using a carriage service to access child abuse material and possessing child abuse material.
He was given a head sentence of 18 months behind bars, to serve four months. He was ordered to serve two years’ probation with a $1000 good behaviour bond for three years.
Forrest Eden Pollock
A Nambour man busted with more than 700 child exploitation images was mourning the loss of his son when the offences took place.
Forrest Eden Pollock, 33, appeared in the Maroochydore District Court in 2023 where he pleaded guilty to three charges including, distributing child exploitation material, possessing child exploitation material and using the internet to procure children under 16.
Pollock appeared restless in the dock, fidgeting as Crown prosecutor Sanaz Masoumi told the court police found 772 child exploitation images and 27 videos in his possession.
“The offending was detected by police in July last year, when they were tasked to investigate the distribution of child exploitation material by a username linked to the defendant’s email address,” Ms Masoumi said.
“A search warrant was then executed at the defendant’s home in Nambour on the 19th of July last year and during the search his devices were seized, that included an iPhone 7 and an iPhone SE.”
Pollock was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended after two months with two years’ probation.
A conviction was recorded.
Riley James Thomas Campbell
A young Sunshine Coast man who repeatedly accessed child abuse material for more than a year was “someone easily taken advantage of”, a court has been told.
Riley James Thomas Campbell, 21, appeared in the Maroochydore District Court in 2023 where he pleaded guilty to a number of offences involving child abuse material.
Campbell was convicted of two charges relating to possessing or controlling child abuse material using a carriage service, one charge of producing, supplying or obtaining child abuse material for use through a carriage service and one charge for using a carriage service for child abuse material.
The court was told Campbell had accessed child abuse material on eight occasions over a 13-month period, from the age of 18-20.
The 21-year-old kept his head bowed as the Commonwealth federal prosecutor told the court police found 60 files containing child abuse material in his possession.
District Court Judge Gary Long told the court had Campbell not come before the court with exceptional circumstances there was a chance he would have been ordered to spend time behind bars.
Campbell was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and released immediately on a good behaviour order of 30 months.
NO CONVICTION
Joshua George English
An Uber Eats driver was released from custody after he paid a 14-year-old girl for sex after meeting her on Snapchat.
Joshua George English had spent almost two years in custody after the Sunshine Coast Child Protection Unit and Taskforce Argos raided his home on June 7, 2022 during their investigation into his abhorrent abuse of a young girl he met online.
Maroochydore District Court heard the now 28-year-old met the 14-year-old on social media in early 2022 and asked if she wanted money.
Crown prosecutor Alex Stark said English persistently messaged the girl in sexualised conversations for two months.
English arranged to pay the girl after negotiating a price of $100 and went to her home where they had sex.
The prosecutor said the child blocked him briefly however spoke to him during the April school holidays where he tried to bargain with her for sex again.
The court was told the child agreed to a cash deal.
Mr Stark said the girl snuck out late at night and was picked up by English, who parked a few houses down and sexually abused her, the court heard.
His offending came to light after the victim told her parents and a school counsellor, with police sparking an investigation.
An undercover officer masqueraded as a 13-year-old girl and spoke to English on Snapchat as well, where he also wanted to pay her cash for sexual acts.
His Golden Beach home was raided where a small amount of marijuana was found, along with one video of child exploitation material on one of his devices.
English pleaded guilty to six charges including two counts of carnal knowledge of a child under 16, possessing child exploitation material and using the internet to procure a child under 16.
Judge Gary Long jailed English for 685 days but with time served, meant he would be released from custody that day.
He was also sentenced to 12 months’ probation.
No convictions were recorded for possessing dangerous drugs and possessing child exploitation material.
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