Qld child sexual abuse offenders including Gordon Anthony Allwood, Michael John Jones, Scott Craig Newton

They are some of Queensland’s worst offenders who were convicted of possessing child abuse material. This is how they were busted.

Since 2000, multiple Queenslanders have been caught and convicted of possessing child abuse material.

Here are some of those who were convicted of unspeakable acts.

GORDON ANTHONY ALLWOOD

A child sex offender asked a 13-year-old girl he called his “queen” to send explicit videos of herself in exchange for education money, a court was told in April 2020.

Gordon Anthony Allwood, then 50, used the pseudonym Peter Armstrong to befriend the young girl who lived in the Philippines, asking her to exchange lewd photos and videos over Facebook Messenger in August 2018.

Allwood, of Ipswich, in 2020 appeared via videolink in Brisbane District Court from Wolston Correctional Centre, where he pleaded guilty to procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside of Australia.

The court was told that over eight days, Allwood sent images of his penis to the teenager and offered her $300 for her schooling if she took part in mutual masturbation and “kept being his queen”.

Allwood’s criminal history was laid bare in court and included convictions for aggravated sexual assault and indecent treatment of boys.

Gordon Anthony Allwood was convicted of possessing child abuse material.

In 2012, Allwood was jailed for stalking a 15-year-old girl after meeting her at a Gatton flood shelter, where she had gone with her family to help victims of the 2011 floods.

He had been sentenced to three years’ jail in the Ipswich District Court in 2015 for using the internet to procure a child and using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication with a child.

Allwood was later released on an interim detention order.

He was subject to this order when police uncovered his relationship with the 13-year-old girl on his phone and a receipt for an international transfer of $50 at his house.

Defence barrister Matt Jackson argued that Allwood should not serve more than four years behind bars, telling the court his client had a disadvantaged upbringing and cognitive impairment.

Judge John Allen labelled Allwood’s offending as “disgusting” and said it was relevant that the victim was from the Philippines, a country with a “less developed child protection system”.

Allwood was sentenced to four years’ jail.

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JUSTIN DANIEL THEODORE GIFFIN

A reportable offender used Instagram and Snapchat to manipulate pre-pubescent girls as young as 10 to engage in “sex talks” and send him nude photos and videos of themselves, a court heard in October 2022.

Justin Daniel Theodore Giffin, now 31, was given 4.5 years’ prison with immediate parole eligibility after serving almost two years in presentence custody.

Maroochydore District Court heard how Giffin posed as a child of 14 or 15 when he used Snapchat and Instagram to engage in sexually explicit conversations with at least 13 girls aged between 10 and 15, between April and November, 2020.

Giffin, who was 29 at the time, would request sexually explicit photos and videos of the girls and send the children child exploitation material as examples of the content he wanted the girls to send him.

Judge Nathan Jarro said Giffin induced the girls to assume sexualised positions, expose their genitals and engage in sexual activities for his own gratification.

“You should be thoroughly ashamed of your actions,” Judge Jarro said.

He also sent videos and photographs of his own genitals.

Court documents stated while the communication was occurring, Giffin used a screen recorder application to record his interactions with the children, thereby creating child exploitation material.

Justin Daniel Theodore Giffin was convicted of possessing child abuse material.

The recordings were discovered in a forensic examination of Giffin’s mobile phone.

Some of the messages sent by Giffin included, “dance like a stripper for me”, “let’s snap each other b4 shower”, “show me that body”, “hungry for that p--y”, “u got a bangin body for 13” and “mmm it looks tasty” while others were far more explicit.

Crown prosecutor Stuart Cummings said Giffin was on probation at the time for sexual offending against an 11-year-old girl and was subject to reporting obligations.

Giffin pleaded guilty to offences including 13 counts of indecent treatment of children under 16, distributing child exploitation material, involving child in making child exploitation material, using carriage service to access child abuse material and possessing child exploitation material.

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MICHAEL JOHN JONES

Just nine months after being sentenced for possessing child exploitation material, a Central Queensland dad was busted for a second time.

Michael John Jones, 31, pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court on September 21, 2021 to using a carriage service to access child abuse material, possessing child exploitation material and two counts of failing to comply with reporting.

Nine months after Jones had received a suspended sentence for possessing more than 1000 child exploitation material files, police raided his home again.

The court heard Jones accessed 47 child abuse material files through an app called Kik, 19 of which fell into the state definition of child exploitation material.

Police raided Jones’s Clermont home on September 6, 2020 where his phone was seized and searched.

Jones had been held on remand since September 2020 due to the offending breaching the suspended sentence he received when he pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material in November 2020.

Judge Jeff Clarke took into account Jones’s plea of guilty and his “short but relevant” criminal history.

Jones received a head sentence of three years’ imprisonment for possessing the child exploitation material.

For using the carriage service to access child abuse material he was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with a recognisance of $1000 and probation for two years.

The sentences were suspended after Jones had served 322 days in custody with an operational period of five years.

A total of 322 days of pre-sentence custody was declared as time already served.

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Queensland has not been immune to child abuse cases.

SCOTT CRAIG NEWTON

A Cairns man who had more than 2000 “depraved” images of child sexual exploitation on his iPad and iPhone was in May 2022 sentenced to prison after appearing in Cairns District Court.

Scott Craig Newton, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material and one count of possessing child exploitation material.

Prosecutor Abi Juniper said the images were of pre-pubescent males.

“There were a large number of images depicting the worst kind of material,” Ms Juniper said.

Ms Juniper said Mr Newton had a previous conviction for possessing child abuse material but was not a registered sex offender.

She said a psychologist’s report indicated he had depression, anxiety, impulsive behaviour and possibly post traumatic stress disorder and had previous psychiatric hospital admissions.

Defence barrister James Sheridan said he “conceded the depraved nature of the child abuse material, but at least there is some acceptance of guilt (and) a degree of co-operation during the police search” at Edmonton in September 2020.

He said Mr Newton’s father drank excessively and he may have been exposed to sexual offences as a child.

Mr Sheridan said “it wasn’t 2000 clicks” as Mr Newton had clicked on a link and it downloaded a large zip file.

“He acted alone, there was no dissemination and no children in the household,” Mr Sheridan said.

Judge Paul Smith sentenced Mr Newton to 15 months in prison, to be released after five months, on the first count, and three years’ probation on the second count.

He noted Mr Newton was lonely and bored and consuming alcohol and watching “normal” porn, which eventually progressed to child porn links.

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ANDREW JOHN FENTON

A Yorkeys Knob man who claimed he was sending money to people who were poor and needed money for food and rent when caught by police soliciting child abuse material from the Philippines was sentenced in March 2022 for his “depravity”.

Andrew John Fenton, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of soliciting child pornography material, two counts of using a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted, grooming a person to make it easier to engage in sexual activity with a child outside Australia and using a carriage service to obtain or access child abuse material in the Cairns District Court.

Sentencing Fenton, Judge Deborah Richards said that when police arrived at his home in Yorkeys Knob armed with a search warrant, he variously claimed to police the people in the photos in his possession were over 18, he did not ask for them, he had no control over the photos he received, he was not sexually interested in children, and did not request the photos.

“Those comments are clearly lies,” Judge Richards said.

The court heard Fenton engaged in conversations with two separate women in February and November of 2018, seeking images of young children.

Andrew John Fenton was convicted in Far North Queensland.

In the latter case, the court heard there was a negotiation on price while the child was present on screen, and that Fenton had noted the child “looked unhappy”.

The court also heard that Fenton engaged with a woman in the Philippines between November 30, 2019, and August 26, 2020, asking her to send pictures of her younger sister and others performing sexual acts or poses, including licking an infant’s penis.

Fenton was ultimately found by police to be in possession of 53 child abuse material images. He told police he was sending money to people who were poor and needed money for food and rent, the court heard.

Judge Richards said a psychiatric report demonstrated Fenton’s continuing lack of understanding and acknowledgment of his own depravity.

“You are sorry but I think you are sorry for the situation you are now in and the shame you’ve brought to yourself and your family, rather than the harm you’ve brought to victims of your crimes,” she observed.

Judge Richards sentenced Fenton to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 18 months.

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JASON BRUCE HANNA

An Edmonton police officer and former Australian Defence Force veteran who had hundreds of child exploitation material images on his phone – including photos of pre-pubescent girls as young as three – failed to avoid a term of imprisonment.

Jason Bruce Hanna, a serving constable at Edmonton police station at the time of his offending, pleaded guilty in February 2022 to one count of possessing child exploitation material and one count of contravening a requirement to provide a passcode in the Cairns District Court.

Crown prosecutor Tegan Grasso told the court that on August 29, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Hanna’s home – where he made repeated denials about child exploitation material that was on his phone, and refused to hand over a passcode for a cloud storage account, to which authorities believed he had been uploading child exploitation material.

Police later found 381 images, collected by Hanna over the course of two months, of which 289 were unique.

Ms Grasso said 117 of those were in the worst category of child exploitation material, depicting a pre-pubescent child under 13 years of age ­engaged in sexual activity.

Defence counsel Justin Sibley tendered to the court an extensive range of material on behalf of his client, including references, a letter of apology to the court, and two reports from a psychiatrist and his treating psychologist, in a bid to prove “exceptional circumstances” that would see Hanna avoid a period of actual imprisonment.

Hanna’s mental disorders were said to stem from adverse events in his childhood, as well as exposure to traumatic events while in the ADF and serving as a police officer, the court heard.

But Judge Tracy Fantin ultimately found there was nothing exceptional about Hanna’s case.

“It is not at all uncommon for offenders for possession of child exploitation material to be mature men with favourable antecedents and no criminal history, who can point to some diagnosis of a mental illness at the time of the offending,” she said.

Hanna was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended after serving five months.

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DANIEL ALBERTO MERLOS TORRES

A registered child sex offender was caught with dozens of files of child abuse material less than a year after he was previously before the courts.

Police raided Daniel Alberto Merlos Torres’ home in December 2021, and seized his mobile phone and tablet.

Southport District Court was told in November 2022 that both devices contained child exploitation material, including images and videos showing children aged between five and 10 involved in sexual acts.

Merlos Torres told officers he had accessed the files online and saved them to his devices.

He spent just over one day in custody following his arrest.

The 27-year-old was convicted of indecent treatment of a child under 12 in the Southport court in November, 2020 and was sentenced to nine months’ jail, wholly suspended for two years.

It was while he was under this suspended jail term that he downloaded the child abuse files.

The court was told Merlos Torres became a “reportable offender” after his last conviction, and then failed on three occasions to notify police about personal social media accounts as required.

Defence solicitor Ali Rana said his client had been diagnosed with autism and still had hope of rehabilitation, despite reoffending while under a suspended jail sentence.

Daniel Alberto Merlos Torres was sentenced in 2022.

Judge Suzanne Sheridan told the man that she was prioritising protecting the community in sentencing him to actual time behind bars.

“These are not victimless crimes – your actions enable offending against vulnerable young children,” she said.

Merlos Torres pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child exploitation material and three counts of failing to comply with reporting conditions.

He was sentenced to 18 months’ jail and must serve the remainder of his suspended sentence. He will be eligible for parole on February 2, 2023.

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BARRY NEIL MIALL

A man’s viewing of child exploitation material escalated to the extent that he touched a boy’s penis over his clothes, a Cairns court heard in December 2022.

It was, Judge Dean Morzone KC said, “offending of the most vile and degrading kind”.

Barry Neil Miall, 40, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to access child abuse material.

The latter charge is a Commonwealth offence, which complicated his sentencing.

The court was told Miall was found guilty in a trial on September 9 on one charge of indecent treatment of a child under 12, which was when he was arraigned and pleaded guilty to the further charges.

Crown prosecutor Jodie Crane submitted to the court that Miall had shown no remorse on the indecent treatment charge, and had put the child, aged under 10, and his family through the difficult process of a trial.

The court was told the child abuse material charges occurred between 2013 and 2020.

“It’s escalated over time from simply viewing, storing and accessing material, to where he’s touched the child,” Ms Crane told the court.

The court was told Miall touched the boy’s penis over his clothing twice.

The child felt uncomfortable and tried to move away, but Miall pushed himself against him.

Ms Crane read a victim impact statement from the victim’s mother, which spoke of how the boy was undergoing therapy “to feel normal again” (in his words).

On April 7, 2021 police executed a search warrant on Miall’s home and found a mobile phone and an iPad tablet with eight videos on each of child exploitation material, mostly of pre-pubescent boys, some as young as four, the court heard.

They had been deleted but were still accessible, and had been accessed since 2013.

The court heard Miall had sold a vehicle between March and October 2020, and the new owner had found 2350 child exploitation images in a USB, with children being penetrated by males, one as young as two.

Defence counsel Frank Richards told the court Miall had been sexually abused at least once when he was a child, and after being bullied at school he was left lonely and isolated, and had resorted to drug abuse.

He sentenced Miall to three years imprisonment.

Judge Morzone set the parole eligibility date at October 17, 2023, after the man has served 14 months.

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Harley Jaymes Wilkes, Jason Bruce Hanna and Aiden Lee Orr were all convicted of possessing child abuse material.

AIDEN LEE ORR

A former volunteer at the Calvary Christian Church in Cairns was in December 2022 sentenced for grooming a young boy.

And the boy’s distraught mother said she felt the punishment meted out to 27-year-old Aiden Lee Orr didn’t fit the crime.

Orr was sentenced to a jail term after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to transmit/make available child abuse material, grooming a child under 16, and exposing a child under 12 to indecent material.

“He sent him over 4000 text messages, was sending sexual images of himself, and requesting similar images be sent back,” the boy’s mother said.

“He added my son on social media, he got his phone number and was communicating to him very inappropriately during that time, asking him where he lived.”

When the boy’s mum went through his phone and found the messages, she called police.

“Within 24 hours he was arrested,” she said.

“He was a volunteer at a big church in town, and he was also trying to get my child to go to his youth group.”

She said that during the course of the events, her son’s schoolwork slipped.

“He wasn’t eating, sleeping, he was essentially in a depression, had a lot of anxiety, his relationships suffered, there was definitely a lot of that,” she said.

Orr was arrested in January 2022 but spent the rest of the year on bail until his sentencing, the boy’s mother said.

The boy and his family have been through an ordeal, which could have been relieved by Orr’s sentencing. But they said the legal process only made the situation worse.

“This man was eventually let off the hook,” she said.

“The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”

Judge Tracy Fantin sentenced Orr to 12 months imprisonment, suspended after three months, with a two-year, $200 good behaviour bond.

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RONALD PETER FOGARTY

A Sunshine Coast nurse was in December 2022 sentenced to 18 months’ jail after police discovered he had accessed at least 540 sick child abuse images with victims as young as two years old.

Ronald Peter Fogarty, 65, from Eudlo, was sentenced by District Court Judge Paul Smith to a head sentence of 18 months, but to be released after he serves three months.

He must be of good behaviour for three years or risk being returned to prison.

The court heard Fogarty worked for Sunshine Coast University Hospital but resigned before he was charged by police with a charge of using a carriage service to access child abuse material.

In sentencing the father of 10 children, Judge Smith noted that police estimated he had accessed 541 child sex image files on his phone between August 13 and 21 in 2021, including some of children aged from two to 12 being raped by older men.

Police got his mobile phone and downloaded its contents after they searched it on August 21 during an investigation to online child porn.

Defence barrister Mark McCarthy tendered a psychiatric report on Fogarty in court which stated he had autism spectrum disorder and was never a physical risk to children, and was not a paedophile.

Judge Smith told Fogarty that he developed a delusional belief that the images he saw were not real.

“It appears you deliberately searched for it,” Judge Smith said of the child sexual abuse images.

For the first year of his probation, Fogarty will be supervised by a probation officer and cannot travel interstate or overseas without permission, the court heard.

FULL REPORT

BRISBANE MAN

A Brisbane man in October 2022 was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for online child abuse related offences.

The man, 43, was sentenced on October 20 in the Brisbane District Court after he pleaded guilty earlier in the year to 15 charges.

The investigation began in December 2020 when the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received information from the United States about an online user uploading child abuse material to the Kik messenger platform.

AFP investigators from the Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET), linked the man to the associated account despite his use of a VPN in an effort to conceal his identity.

The man pleaded guilty on June 9, 2022 to one count of producing child abuse material, five counts of transmitting child abuse material, one count of accessing child abuse material, four counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material, and three counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

He also pleaded guilty on October 18 to one count of destroying evidence in a federal judicial proceeding.

The man was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, to be released on two years’ probation after serving one year in custody.

AFP Constable Tom Clayworth said the investigation should serve as a warning that the AFP was dedicated to fighting child sexual abuse.

“This investigation is another example of the expertise and commitment of the AFP in helping protect children everywhere from online predators,” he said.

COLIN JON CRAWFORD

A diagnosed paedophile who asked a girl, 16, to sexually reveal herself to him online, then travelled from Dalby to Brisbane to meet a 15-year-old, was released from prison in September 2021.

But Colin Jon Crawford, 51, who had spent 13 months behind bars, will have to report his address and other personal details to police for the rest of his life.

Crawford pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to solicit child exploitation material, grooming a child and using the internet to procure a child he intended to meet.

In May 2020 Crawford sent a Snapchat message to the niece of a woman he knew, asking her: “Can I see your p**sy?”, Brisbane District Court heard.

He told the 16-year-old not to tell, making sure his offending remained concealed, Crown prosecutor Matt Hynes said.

After the girl told her father, police spoke to Crawford but did not immediately charge him.

But a short time later he was arrested as a result of a police sting, after exchanging Facebook messages with an undercover officer posing as a girl, 15.

Crawford sent the “girl” a photo of his penis and asked her to show him a nude photo of herself.

After exchanging messages a number of times over 17 days, making sexually explicit comments, he arranged to meet her for sexual activity.

Crawford, who had a previous history of sex offending, was arrested after he arrived at the agreed Brisbane meeting place.

Mr Hynes said Crawford was a diagnosed paedophile with urges he could not control at times.

Crawford also pleaded guilty to three breaches of reporting conditions.

They involved him not reporting that he had a number of social media apps and not reporting his contact with the 16-year-old girl or that he had an account with a dating website.

Judge Glen Cash said Crawford had been sexually attracted to young people since his teenage years and he had a borderline intellectual disability that led to his sex offending.

He had been assessed as being a moderate to high risk of reoffending.

Crawford has previously been on medication to suppress his sexual urges while in custody, but told his lawyer it did not always work.

Crawford was sentenced in September 2021 to three years’ jail, immediately suspended after the 13 months he had already spent in custody, but operational for three years.

He also was sentenced to three years’ probation with a special condition that he undergo any medical, psychiatric or psychological treatment that was directed.

He also was placed on a $1000 three-year good behaviour bond.

Judge Cash said Crawford would be a reportable offender for the rest of his life as a result of his latest convictions.

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Colin Jon Crawford was convicted of child abuse material.

HARLEY JAYMES WILKES

A serial paedophile who abused seven young children – threatening to kill two if they told anyone – was in April 2022 sentenced to remain behind bars indefinitely with psychologists expressing fears he was trying to “play the system”.

Even the defence counsel for Harley Jaymes Wilkes, then 27, agreed that he should remain in prison after he was caught sending “overtly sexual” messages to a Canadian girl the same month he was released on a supervision order.

Justice Jean Dalton cancelled Wilkes’s 10-year supervision order, before taking aim at Queensland Corrective Services for failing to provide him with adequate psychological care.

In September 2021, the Supreme Court recommended Wilkes receive at least six months of counselling before the court could assess his rehabilitation and risk to the community.

Justice Dalton said it was “beyond disappointing” that QCS had, in that seven months, arranged for Wilkes to receive only six hours of counselling.

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IPSWICH MAN

An Ipswich man was jailed in June 2022 for accessing, sharing and soliciting child abuse material online after a joint operation between Australian and New Zealand authorities.

The man, 28, was sentenced in Brisbane District Court after he was identified as part of ­Operation Molto, which began in 2019.

The operation began when the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received intelligence from New Zealand authorities that thousands of offenders globally were sharing abhorrent child abuse material online on a cloud storage platform.

The Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team searched the man’s Springfield Lakes home in August 2020 and seized a mobile phone that contained child abuse material.

The man was convicted on seven counts, including two of using a carriage service to access child pornography material. He was sentenced to two years’ jail, to be released after serving three months, and will be subject to probation supervision for 18 months.

FULL REPORT

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Originally published as Qld child sexual abuse offenders including Gordon Anthony Allwood, Michael John Jones, Scott Craig Newton