Named and shamed: Full list 2023 Toowoomba offenders guilty of child abuse crimes
Named and shamed: Here’s a full list of men who have fronted Toowoomba courts for crimes relating to the sexual abuse of children, either directly or indirectly, as the prevalence of online abuse material skyrockets.
Police & Courts
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Offenders who have committed heinous crimes relating to the sexual abuse of children pass through the Toowoomba courts almost daily.
Those people, who more often than not are men, cannot be named as their victims are usually related to them, whether that be biologically or otherwise – which puts the identification of the child at risk.
However, the men in the following list who committed crimes that involved the abuse of children, indirectly or directly, do not fit that common category, and can be named.
RAPE
At the higher level of child sex crimes are those who physically violate their young victims physically causing irreparable damage that lasts a lifetime.
Dwayne Warnock
Dwayne Michael Warnock was convicted of rape in 2019, however his vile crime did not come to the community’s attention until he fronted Toowoomba District Court for an unrelated crime in 2023.
While being sentenced for a premeditated and brutal assault, the court was told Warnock breached his suspended sentence imposed for a charge of rape.
The Toowoomba District Court was told a 16-year-old girl was asleep and woke to Warnock raping her with his hands.
He later asked the girl if she liked it.
He was also convicted of grooming a 15-year-old girl online in 2021, who was actually an undercover police officer.
The father of three was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence for the rape, which was activated when he pleaded guilty to the grooming offence.
He then spent 15 months in jail, and was released in June 2023.
After pleading guilty to the new assault charge in late July, he was placed on an 18 month jail term, suspended for three years.
Click here for the full court report.
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Sexual violence is any unwanted sexual behaviour towards another person. Legislatively sexual assault differs from rape as it does not involve the penetration of a body part – whether that be with an object, hand, or genitalia.
These offences spiked in March 2022, with 143 reports made in the Darling Downs region that month, which rose again in October 2022 (123) and March 2023 (88).
Robert Head
A jury found Robert Andrew Scott Head guilty of two charges of sexual assault, and one charge of the indecent treatment of a child under 16.
The Toowoomba District Court was told that on two different occasions Head took advantage of the vulnerable teenage boys - one 16-year-old who was passed out drunk, while the other was drunk and vomiting.
The indecent treatment of a child charge was in relation to Head sending a picture of his penis to a 14 or 15-year-old boy.
Crown prosecutor Emily Coley said Head’s crimes were brazen and he showed no remorse.
In May 2023, the 28-year-old southwest Queensland man was sentenced to a 12 month jail sentence and will be eligible to apply for parole on November 8.
When released from jail, he will be on the child sex offender registry for at least five years.
Click here for the full court report.
CHILD ABUSE MATERIAL
The court, police, and community take crimes of child abuse material very seriously – during sentencing judges routinely tell offenders it is not a victimless crime and they are facilitating and encouraging the abuse of children.
Arel Lara
Arel Aviles Lara was jailed after pleading guilty to using a device to distribute child abuse material and possessing child abuse material.
In February 2023, the Toowoomba District Court was told police raided the 31-year-old aged care worker’s home in December 2021 where they found 18 child exploitation material files on mobile phones, a hard drive, and in two Facebook groups that the man created to share the content with others.
The alleged prominent member of Toowoomba’s Filipino community and basketball player had video footage of men and woman engaging in a number of sexual acts with pre-pubescent girls and boys.
One of the girls was only five-years-old.
Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Lara to a 12 month jail term.
He has since been released from jail after spending three months behind bars.
Click here for the full court report.
Joshua Macgowan
In February 2023, Joshua Aaron Macgowan walked free after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material.
The 43-year-old father of two was found with 100 child abuse images on his phone after his home was raided in September 2021.
He denied having any knowledge of the images despite them being in a hidden folder.
He was also charged with, and pleaded guilty to, contravening an order under the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act, which arose after he refused to divulge the folder’s password.
He was sentenced to a 15 month jail term which was suspended for two and a half years.
Click here for the full court report.
David John Kerr
David John Kerr was sentenced in February 2023 to a two-year jail term after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to access, solicit, control, and distribute child abuse material.
Police found more than 400 child exploitation material images and videos on the 39-year-old’s mobile phone, and the children were aged between six and 13-years-old.
As the father of two was already on a three month suspended sentence for an unrelated crime, it was activated in full in February.
He was to be released after serving six months behind bars.
Click here for the full court report.
Clay Barden
When Clay William Barden failed to comply with his reporting duties, police raided his home in 2022 and found he was still engaging in child abuse material crimes online.
The Toowoomba man fronted Toowoomba District Court in March 2023 and pleaded guilty to two charges of transmitting child abuse material and soliciting child abuse material.
The court was told Barden had a long history of making, distributing, and possessing child exploitation material, which included images of babies.
Barden’s new charges however, related to an anime image of a pre-pubescent girl in an act with a man, and a very detailed story he wrote about the graphic abuse of a child.
Online, Barden also asked a man to send him the footage of the stranger sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl in a toilet block.
Barden was sentenced to a five-year prison term, with a fixed non-parole period of 30 months.
Click here for the full court report.
Steven Wigg
Steven Graham Wigg was sentenced for possessing thousands of sickening child abuse images and was back before court for not complying with his obligations as a registered sex offender.
At Gatton Magistrate Court on April 4, Wigg pleaded guilty to failing to complete his quarterly report and was sentenced to one month imprisonment, suspended for six months.
The court was told the 50-year-old man had failed to comply with his reporting obligations four times in the past, one of which resulted in him spending six weeks in jail.
In 2020 Wigg was sentenced to two years and nine months imprisonment for possessing child abuse material – despite being convicted of the same offence in 2019.
A South Burnett court was told Wigg had thousands of child abuse images, even though he was convicted of the same offence in 2019.
Kingaroy District Court was told in 2020, Wigg had 2831 child abuse images of pubescent children aged 12 and under.
Click here for the full court report.
Ryan Ward
Ryan John Ward was sentenced to a five year jail term after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to access and possess child exploitation material.
At the time of the crime in 2022, Ward was on parole for the same offence.
When sentenced in March 2023, the 38-year-old had spent 365 days in pre-sentence custody, however only 125 days were declared as time served.
Toowoomba District Court was told the material found involved “very young children,” which included a video of a five or six-year-old being raped.
Click here for the full court report.
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