South Australian child sexual offenders and their vile crimes

They are among South Australia’s worst sexual offenders, men who acted on their sick fantasies, perpetrating horrible crimes against innocent children. Here’s how they were busted.

Last month, News Corp Australia launched Predatory, an eight-part podcast series, shining a light on the insidious world of child sexual abuse and the sick individuals who perpetrate these awful crimes.

The series aims to give voice to victims of child sexual abuse, help to dispel some of the most common myths about the perpetrators and provide expert advice about how families and communities can help keep their children safe.

While some of these monsters were truly in hiding, others were hiding in plain sight.

CAMERON ROBERT BOWEN

Cameron Robert Bowen.

Bowen was jailed in December, 2022 - receiving one of the longest sentences for child sex crimes in South Australia - after he admitted he hid behind dozens of digital masks to pursue, harass, intimidate and threaten vulnerable children for sex.

As The Advertiser reported, the 32-year-old Salisbury man preyed on members of the LGBT+ community through Instagram and Facebook, but refused to accept he is a paedophile.

The District Court heard that denial eroded Bowen’s claims of remorse, with Judge Geraldine Davison saying he would have served more than 20 years if not for his confessions.

Bowen man made legal history by pleading guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship, despite never meeting his victim in person.

His confession set a national precedent for the prosecution and punishment of online child sex predators, exposing them to maximum life sentences.

In sentencing, Judge Davison said Bowen solicited images from children and swapped them with other paedophiles on the internet.

She said his collection of child abuse material comprised hundreds of videos and images depicting children as young as two.

At times, she said, he feted his victims with gifts, including engagement rings, toys and roses but also threatened that he would release indecent photos of them if they did not provide him with more child exploitation material.

Judge Davison said Bowen’s conduct towards his victims was “at times, depraved and sadistic”.

“Your offending demonstrated not just an unlawful sexual interest in relation to children but also displayed a cruel disregard for their welfare,” she said.

Bowen was sentenced to 15 years in prison with a non-parole period of eight-and-a-half years.

HENRY ANTHONY SERGI

Henry Sergi locked a 12-year-old girl in a cage in his Modbury North home before sexually abusing her and filming the humiliation. Picture: Facebook

Henry Sergi initially pleaded not guilty and blamed the victim. Picture: Facebook

The Modbury North man, 63, was jailed in December, 2022 after he put a 12-year-old girl in handcuffs, locked her in a cage and filmed himself abusing her.

As The Advertiser reported, Sergi’s horrific abuse began when his victim was 12 and took place sporadically over three years.

During sentencing submissions, District Court Judge Michael Burnett heard Sergi was found with 390 images of the victim in various states of undress, as well as being abused.

He also had 672 images and one video of other children being abused, the court heard.

Sergi initially pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including producing child exploitation material and maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child.

He pleaded guilty at arraignment in the District Court.

The prosecution described his offending as “predatory, planned and ongoing”.

“When the defendant was arrested he was certainly cooperative with police but he was seeking to deflect his involvement in what we say is horrendous offending and he was laying the blame on the (victim).
“He was saying that she instigated many of these things and that he did things at her request. She was a child.”

Judge Burnett said Sergi’s offending was a gross breach of trust and involved humiliating and degrading acts towards the young victim.

Sergi was sentenced to 15 years, four months and seven days in prison, with a non-parole period of 12 years, three months and 11 days.

With time served, he will be eligible for parole in early 2035.

GEOFFREY WILLIAM MOYLE

Geoffrey William Moyle was convicted of abusing children and posting the videos online.

Dubbed a “sex terrorist”, Moyle, aka “Waka”, is a paedophile whose child abuse videos and images helped start the dark web and who was praised by other perverts as the man “who wrote the Bible on child abuse”.

Moyle’s crimes were committed against child sex slaves and he was among the first paedophiles to upload the videos online for others to view.

He was finally apprehended by South Australia’s elite Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team after a 20-year international manhunt.

Moyle was jailed in 2021 for nearly a decade and backdated the sentence, meaning he would be eligible for parole in 2024.

But in June, 2022, the Court of Appeal revoked the original sentence and imposed a new sentence of 12 years, with a non-parole period of seven years, meaning Moyle will not be eligible to apply for parole until February, 2027.

LISTEN TO THE PREDATORY PODCAST

BEVAN WILSON

Wilson, 71, was a popular teacher, football coach and university lecturer with an evil secret.

Over the course of three years, Wilson, who also goes by the name Bevin, repeatedly abused a student at an inner-suburban high school where Wilson was teaching in the mid-1990s.

A court heard Wilson did not teach his victim but took up a “guiding or mentoring-type relationship” with the boy.

The abuse began when the victim was helping Wilson clean a storage room off the art room and continued after Wilson left his job as a teacher and ingratiated himself into the victim’s family, visiting the victim’s house every Saturday, when he would chat with the boy’s mother while her children washed his car.

Wilson would take the boy on drives during which he “abused him extensively”, the court heard.

Years later, Wilson’s victim threatened him with a knife and forced him to confess over the phone to the victim’s father that he had been abused as a child.

Wilson was found guilty of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with his young victim.

In November, 2022, Wilson was jailed for 12 years, with a six-year non-parole period due to his advancing Parkinson’s disease.

COLIN HUMPHRYS

Convicted child molester Colin Humphrys, in January, 1995.

Arguably one of Adelaide’s most notorious paedophiles, Colin Humphrys has a long rap sheet of offending against children that ultimately changed laws.

It includes the kidnap and abuse of a child in the 1990s.

In 2009 he was locked up indefinitely and convicted of five counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy in a public toilet.

But, by 2018, he had applied to be released into the community and was given permission by Justice Trish Kelly to live in the Bowden-Brompton area.

News of his release sparked wide public outrage and the Director of Public Prosecutions launched an appeal to keep him behind bars.

Bipartisan laws then passed SA parliament requiring sex offenders who had been detained indefinitely to prove they were able to control their urges and no longer posed a danger to the community. It must be verified by two psychiatrists.

Justice David Lovell this year consigned him to prison for life after ruling that he was unable to control his sexual urges.

SHANNON McCOOLE

Child sex offender Shannon McCoole

He was trusted to look after some of South Australia’s most vulnerable children – but wound up sparking a Royal Commission into the state’s child protection system when his vile crimes came to light.

Shannon McCoole admitted to offences against at least seven children in his care while working for the former Families SA – one as young as 18 months old.

One of the children had autism and another was disabled.

McCoole also ran an international child pornography website on which he said he was a “professional photographic sex instructor”, his interests were “anything below 12”, and his hobby was “sex, sex, sex, more sex, natural weight loss for chubby kids”.

Sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2015 with a non-parole period on 28 years, McCoole is regarded of one of the worst sex offenders in South Australian history.

It sparked the Child Protection Systems Royal Commission by Margaret Nyland, whose mammoth report found child protection in a parlous state and recommended 260 changes.

His sentence was reduced by three years in 2018 after helping police prosecute a European paedophile.

VIVIAN FREDERICK DEBOO

Vivian Frederick Deboo arrives at the District court in Adelaide in 2018. Photo: AAP Image/David Mariuz.

Two men known as the “Masked Brothers” faced their abuser, Vivian Frederick Deboo, in court.

Deboo preyed on the brothers – then aged 11 and 13 – by using his standing as a respected member of the Baptist Church and community groups to gain access to children.

They were working at his catering business when he forced himself upon and abused the boys.

About 30 years later, he faced court on multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency against the boys.

Deboo, the court heard, told a psychologist his behaviour was “quite a normal part of (his) victims’ adolescent sexual development”.

He was sentenced to more than six years behind bars after pleading guilty – later losing an appeal against his jail time.

The repeat offender was also sentenced for similar crimes against three boys in 1996.

The Masked Brothers’ tireless and public campaigning, in conjunction with The Advertiser, sparked legal change that banned sex offenders from receiving home detention sentences.

PETER LIDDY

Former magistrate Peter Michael Liddy in 1999.

Peter Liddy once upheld the law – dishing out punishments and deterrents to offenders as a magistrate.

But in 2001 he found himself on the other side of the fence, facing 10 counts of child sex offences.

Liddy continually abused multiple children at the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club across the 1980s.

He was convicted of five counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child under 12, four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempting to bribe one of his victims into not giving evidence.

He was handed a 25-year jail sentence – a record at the time.

Other alleged victims have come forward since, with a push in 2010 for Liddy to face another 10 child sex charges.

Those charges – for alleged offences between 1969 and 1983 – were ultimately thrown out due to the length of time since they allegedly occurred and concern over the ability for a fair trial.

Liddy applied for parole in 2019 but remains behind bars.

RUECHA TOKPUTZA

Ruecha Tokputza was convicted of a raft of offences against children.

Once considered Australia’s worst ever child sex predator, Ruecha Tokputza was convicted of a raft of offences unparalleled in the country’s legal history.

Tokputza abused 13 children in Australia and Thailand, breaking both South Australian and Commonwealth laws.

One of those children was 15 months old.

One victim was “in a nappy, sleeping”, Judge Liesl Chapman told the District Court last year, when Tokputza abused him.

He even filmed himself abusing the children, posting the videos online to encourage other paedophiles to do the same.

He abused the 13 children 51 times over six years.

Prosecutors said it was “hard to think of more serious offending” that Tokputza’s – putting him in an even worse category than McCoole.

Tokputza was sentenced to 40 years a three months in prison with a 28-year non-parole parole period.

The length of his massive sentence puts him on-par with some of the state’s most notorious mass-murderers.

PHILIP CORLETT CAREY

One of South Australia’s most notorious paedophiles, Philip Corlett Carey’s offending spanned more than 50 years.

Carey – who has also used the surnames Teare and Cryer – was first locked up in 1961 for indecent assaults against boys.

Over three decades, he served more sentences for similar offences – in 1969, 1973, 1979, 1984 and 1995.

Carey paid $2 for sexual favours from an 11-year-old boy in August 1994, repeatedly sexually assaulting him after collecting him from school and driving him to secluded locations.

He fell foul of the law again in January 1999, being arrested for approaching young boys in contravention of a paedophile restraining order.

Carey, who has been chemically castrated in an effort to control his urges, has also told police that he only abused pre-pubescent boys he did not know and regarded them as “a piece of meat” with no personality.

He was jailed again in 2007 for 47 breaches of his restraining order – and again for 12 months in 2014 after he was found in possession of 686 images depicting children under the age of 14.

Later that year, then Attorney-General John Rau made an application to the Supreme Court for Carey to be detained indefinitely.

ROWAN VARNISH

Mawson Lakes man Rowan Varnish pleaded guilty of having an unlawful sexual relationship with a child.

Varnish, 33, of Mawson Lakes lied about his age to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he met via a social media app called Wink in November, 2020.

The District Court heard Varnish, then aged 32, began communicating with his victim on Snapchat. The victim told Varnish she was 16 and Varnish lied about his age.

“You, however, told the complainant that you were 18, turning 19, when you were in fact 32 years old,” Judge Ian Press said in sentencing.

The court heard Varnish and the victim met up and had sex four times between December, 2020 and January, 2021.

The court heard that the victim’s mother confronted Varnish before they had sexual intercourse for the first time “and you were aware the complainant was 13 years of age,” Judge Press said.

Varnish pleaded guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child.

He was sentenced to six years and one month jail with a non-parole period of three years and five months, backdated to September, 2021.

RICHARD IAN SQUIRES

The 40-year-old child predator was jailed in March, 2022 for the abuse of a child in state care.

A court heard Squires befriended his 15-year-old victim, who was couch surfing at the time and would often stay the night at Squires’ Semaphore Park flat.

The court heard the victim was asleep on the couch in January, 2020 and woke to find Squires indecently assulating him.

In February 2020, he woke to find his pants had been pulled down and Squires having sex with him. Squires abused him again in March, 2020.

Squires pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and indecent assault.

In October, 2021, Squires was jailed for four-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of two years after luring a 16-year-old boy in state care via the Grindr app in January, 2020 and having unlawful sexual intercourse with that victim on two occasions.

During sentencing in March, 2022, Judge Adam Kimber said he had concerns about Squires’ ability to control his sexual interest in young boys once released from prison.

The court heard Squires was willing to engage in rehabilitation programs.

Adding to his previous head sentence, Squires was sentenced to 11 years and four months, with a non-parole period of six years, eight months, backdated to May, 28 2021.

NAME SUPPRESSED

The man aged in his 20s, whose name is suppressed, was sentenced to 14 years for abusing his young child.

He was originally charged with possessing child exploitation material but when police investigated further, they found images of the man abusing his own three-year-old child.

He was charged with contact offending towards the child and taken into custody.

A District Court judged ruled the man’s crimes were some of the most serious offending she had come across.

He was sentenced to 14 years, two months and five days in custody with a non-parole period of 11 years, 10 months and 25 days.

He will be eligible for parole in 2032 with time served.

For more details about the Predatory podcast, go to predatory.com.au

If you have a story to tell, email us at [e-mail]

Originally published as South Australian child sexual offenders and their vile crimes