A young Toowoomba woman faces court over child exploitation material

Police allege the young woman, her mother and a 30-year-old man were behind making and distributing child exploitation material.

A 20-year-old woman accused of making and distributing child exploitation material has had her charges mentioned before Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Police claim the woman and her mother and a man aged in his 30s were behind the making and distributing of child exploitation material at the family’s home east of Toowoomba.

Police claim the 20-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was herself abused as a teenager before allegedly going on to be involved in the making of the child exploitation material herself.

When the trio initially appeared in court in August 2022, it was claimed a breakdown of a relationship and a domestic violence complaint had allegedly uncovered the man’s degrading behaviour in pressuring his former partner and her children into making child exploitation material by claiming the Australian Federal Police wanted the images.

The matters came to light when the girls’ mother went to police to take out a domestic violence application against her former partner, and during the process the alleged child sex offences were revealed.

The 20-year-old woman was not required to be in court when her matters were mentioned on Thursday and she remains on bail with strict conditions.

She has not as yet been required to enter any pleas to the charges which include four counts of distributing child exploitation material, four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 (take photograph etc), two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 (expose), and one of making child exploitation material.

She was represented in court by Paige Hetherington, of MacDonald Law, who said her client now had funding for a barrister and asked for an adjournment so counsel could be briefed in the matter.

Acting Magistrate Kay Ryan therefore remanded the woman on bail and adjourned the case for committal mention back in the same court on February 9.

The woman’s two co-accused have been remanded in custody and will have their matters mentioned in the same court later this month.