Named and shamed: Victorians caught with sickening child abuse material
They are some of Victoria’s worst offenders with a sickening attraction to child abuse material. This is how they were busted.
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The stereotype holds that they are outwardly seamy characters, men in trench coats lurking in dark places.
But the sad truth is, many sex offenders don’t announce themself quite so obviously.
They come from all walks of life, all kinds of professional backgrounds.
They are husbands, fathers, teachers, accomplished businessmen, ostensibly upstanding members of their communities.
Sometimes they are hiding in plain sight, getting away with their disgusting and horrifying crimes for months or years before, inevitably, they are caught and brought to justice.
They include these Victorian men, who were caught with sickening material depicting the sexual abuse of innocent children over the past three years.
THOMAS DONALDSON
A former H&M Melbourne manager, Donaldson, 28, exchanged sick child abuse material with a notorious paedophile from interstate and regularly talked about raping and murdering children and infecting them with HIV.
Donaldson’s offendering was uncovered after police arrested HIV-positive paedophile Jadd Brooker in South Australian in August, 2020.
Investigators found Donaldson shared child abuse material with Brooker over Facebook and the messaging app Telegram between November 2017 and August 2019.
As The Herald Sun reported, Donaldson was active in child abuse material group chats and he and Brooker often discussed the sickening child abuse images and videos which Brooker would send him.
Donaldson also regularly discussed raping and murdering children and “infecting” children with HIV, the Country Court heard.
Donaldson also shared abhorrent material depicting men raping male children, the court heard.
He was arrested by Australian Federal Police in February 2021 and authorities seized a laptop and mobile phone containing almost 50 Telegram child abuse material chats.
Donaldson was given an immediate 15-month prison term after pleading guilty to multiple transmitting child abuse material charges.
He was sentenced to two years’ and six months in prison but will be released on a two-year good behaviour bond after serving 15 months.
NATHAN DRENNAN
The Dandenong warehouse worker was caught with sickening material depicting children being abused by adults and violated by dogs.
Members of the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team raided the 25-year-old’s Pakenham home in October, 2021 and found that Drennan had been “dealing in child abuse material” via the online platform Discord.
Police analysed multiple devices and a Gmail account and discovered child abuse photos and videos - including some showing me performing sickening acts on pre-pubescent children.
They also found disgusting Japanese-style animation depicting children performing and suffering terrible sex acts.
Police also discovered Drennan, under the username ‘Koku’, communicated with another offender via the messaging app Telegram.
“You got more with younger girls,” Drennan said in one message.
“I have everything bro,” the other user replied.
“Nice...girls under 14 are best for me,” Drennan wrote.
County Court judge Anne Hassan said the material Drennan had viewed and traded was “too horrible to even contemplate”.
Drennan was sentenced to two years and six months in prison to be released on a two year good behaviour bond after serving nine months.
He was registered as a sex offender for life.
BENJAMIN ‘BEN’ HOLMAN
A 31-year old mechanical fitter from Melbourne, Holman made child abuse material using videos he found on social media and sprayed young women and girls with a white substance, while secretly filming them with a GoPro.
Using a syringe filled with a white substance, Holman “covertly sprayed” his victims at Springvale shopping centre and went undetected for almost three years.
A court heard Homan worked with a “milky white lubricant” while employed at Roto Pumps. The court heard Homan preferred females wearing leggings and tight shorts but also targeted children who were at the centre with their families, and sometimes children in pairs.
Holman used a concealed GoPro to film his victims and later edited the videos.
He also shared images of two pre-pubescent girls, taken at Bunnings Cranbourne, to a lewd website and made his own child abuse material using videos of children he sourced from TikTok and Instagram.
Holman was befriended by an undercover police officer via Telegram in March, 2021 and sent the officer a video showing him following two young girls and spraying a victim with a “white fluid”.
In May, investigators raided Holman’s home in Cranbourne West and seized several devices and a mannequin dressed in leggings.
They also discovered several videos and images taken of young women and girls from behind wearing leggings or bikinis in public.
They found videos of Holman having sex with the mannequin while it was dressed in leggings.
Holman pleaded guilty in the County Court of 27 charges of sexual assault. He pleaded guilty to 34 charges including soliciting, transmitting and possessing child abuse material.
In December, 2022, Holman, who sobbed during the hearing, was sentenced to a 12-month jail term, handed a 30-month community correction order and made a registered sex offender for life.
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PAUL BRADLEY
The former state manager of a global insurance brokerage, Bradley, 58, was caught with child abuse material at his home in Lysterfield in February. 2021.
As the Herald Sun reported, detectives from the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Taskforce began investigating after receiving intelligence Bradley had shared child abuse material via the messaging app Kik, a known hunting ground for paedophiles online and “free for all” for sexual predators.
Posing as a female user, Bradley transmitted lewd images and videos via chats with 15 other Kik users between January 26 and February 12, 2021.
Some of the images depicted children aged under 10 performing sex acts.
Investigators also detailed Bradley’s chat messages with other sickos on the Kik app. After receiving a video Bradley replied “luv it” and “sure” when asked by a Kik user if he liked “young porn”.
Bradley told police he knew his actions were “illegal” and “wrong” but “liked that it was a thrill” because it was “taboo”.
The County Court heard the married father of two was a devoted family man but his “happy home environment” collapsed after his behaviour was exposed.
Bradley was given a 12-month suspended prison term and a three year good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to accessing, possessing and transmitting child abuse material.
PETER PHIBBS
Phibbs, 47, was arrested by Federal police after he was caught with sickening child sex abuse videos in October, 2021.
The County Court heard the Coles Victoria area manager used the “gay chatline” Fastmeet and made child abuse material available in December 2020.
As The Herald Sun reported, Judge Peter Rozen said Phibbs and another male engaged in a 40-minute discussion about having “penetrative sex with children as young as eight”.
Judge Rozen said the conversation was conducted on “explicit and abhorrent” terms.
Phibbs was caught on October 12, 2021 with sickening child abuse videos that depicted adult men and pre-pubescent boys.
The court heard Phibbs had no prior convictions, no subsequent offending and had shown “genuine shame and remorse”.
Phibbs was convicted and given a 15-month suspended prison term and a three year good behaviour bond He was registered as a sex offender for 15 years.
WAYNE HARPER
The former prison boss, 59, was jailed in November 2020 after his sickening collection of child abuse material was found when he sold his family home in Geelong.
The new owner was renovating in August 2019 when he discovered multiple USB sticks discarded in a wardrobe, which contained both official prison documents and child abuse material.
Police raided the former general manager of Margoneet’s home and office, uncovering evidence he’d been accessing the material for at least four years.
Harper pleaded guilty to five charges relating to child abuse material.
Sentencing Harper to a minimum term of two years and three months, Judge Patricia Riddell said his crimes were particularly serious given his position in the state’s correctional system.
“The community is also entitled to expect that a person in a role of prison manager would have some understanding and concern for victims of crime,” she said.
ANDREW HARRIS
The 48-year-old former Metro Trains ticket inspector and part-time Parkenham CFA lieutenant was jailed for six months in 2020 after he was busted uploading child abuse material to Tumblr.
His home was raided by the Australian Federal Police in June the previous year, which uncovered an iPad containing 69 images and 170 videos of horrific material.
The device’s search history also included searches for naked children performing sex acts and incest, as well as tips for how to adopt children from Thailand and conceal his online activity.
Harris pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and two counts of possession child abuse material.
He was ordered to serve a two-year community corrections order after his release from prison
in late 2020.
AARON BARNDEN
The renowned violinist, who previously performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, was jailed for two months in October 2020 for producing and possessing child exploitation material.
Barnden, 44, was nabbed by the Australian Federal Police in a raid on his Blackburn home in September the previous year where investigators seized devices containing 319 vile images.
Police also discovered the children’s music tutor had created his own child abuse material by photoshopping underage children onto pornographic images.
He was placed on a two-year community corrections order after his release from prison and made a registered sex offender for 15 years.
DANIEL PISANO
The former manager at one of Melbourne’s most popular Lebanese restaurants was jailed in 2020 after police uncovered 24,000 images and videos of disgusting child exploitation material on his electronic devices.
In the year prior to his arrest in February 2020, the Greenvale man had posed as a teenager on KiK and WhatsApp, grooming underage victims to share images and videos of themselves.
Police found evidence the Sheesh Grill manager was also part of a ring that shared child exploitation material via Dropbox.
He was granted bail but police were back at his house three months later after the serial offender was caught with more sick material.
Pisano, 34, was sentenced in October 2020 to a minimum of four years and nine months jail after pleading guilty to 37 offences.
Judge Scott Johns said he had committed “deeply troubling” offending by participating in the trafficking of vile child abuse material.
“By extension you are part of the vile trade and exploitation of defenceless children,” he said.
He was made a registered sex offender for life.
GARETH DUNSTAN
The Mt Waverley dad was jailed in October 2020 for six months after police discovered a hoard of 6036 images and videos of child abuse material at his home.
Dunstan, 55, landed on the police radar after his credit cards were linked to a membership for an online site which specialised in the sickening material, purchasing from the website on seven occasions over a four year period.
Under questioning, the former data analyst admitted to downloading child exploitation material but told police he would: “Exercise his judgment to select girls who looked more like women”.
“The reason general deterrence is important is because he’s feeding the market with the production of this material,” Judge Kevin Doyle said in his sentencing remarks.
He was made a registered sex offender for eight years.
JUSTIN GORNIAKOWSKI
The “wicked” Hoppers Crossing stay-at-home dad was jailed in 2021 for his role in a sick ring which shared child exploitation material with other users on encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Gorniakowski, 48, was arrested in July 2020 after police uncovered the ring, learning he had “made available” more than 100 files to other users.
His phone was seized, which was found to contain 366 images and videos, and a further 4000 were discovered in an online account.
Some of the vile material seized by police depicted children as young as six months old.
Judge Douglas Trapnell said Gorniakowski fuelled child abuse market with his “appalling wicked, and depraved material”.
He was jailed for three years but will be released onto an 18-month good behaviour bond after serving 18 months, and was made a registered sex offender for 15 years.
BLAKE DILLON
The aspiring graphic designer from Narre Warren South was nabbed by police after downloading horrific child exploitation material to “explore his sexuality”.
Dillon, 20, was arrested in June, 2020, with investigators seizing 1777 images and 25 hours of disturbing video footage, including some depicting sadism and bestiality.
Dillon told police he first downloaded child abuse material when he was about 14 years old, initially looking at kids his own age but then seeking out younger children.
“Eventually I found myself going to the dark web to find more videos … (and) eventually it became a bit of a habit,” he said.
“There’s nothing I can really say to defend myself beyond that I was an idiot teenager.”
He was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order in March 2021 and will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for eight years.
DAFFYD KNOX
The Echuca disability support worker’s home was raided by police after his laptop was used to access child exploitation material online, with police finding 361 images saved to the device.
He blamed pop-up ads on a porn website and a compulsion to save everything for downloading the horrid images.
“I definitely knew having that stuff was illegal,” he told police.
Knox, 57, pleaded guilty to possessing the disturbing content in March 2021 and was placed on the sex offenders register for eight years.
LONG NGOC HUYNH
The Meadow Heights father-of-two blamed boredom as the reason he began watching sexualised videos of young girls on the family computer.
Police raided Long Ngoc Huynh’s home in 2019, finding a stash of more than 30 hours of videos of child exploitation downloaded from the dark web.
In an interview with police, Huynh, 43, admitted to looking at the videos “out of curiosity” and because he was “bored”.
He was spared jail in November 2021 by Magistrate Olivia Trumble who said he didn’t have a collection of “thousands” of illegal videos as offenders often do.
He was fined $5000 and placed on the sex offender registry.
ANDREW O’HALLORAN
The Grovendale man, 37, was caught in an undercover sting after describing depraved sexual fantasies with children to a police officer online in 2019.
Andrew O’Halloran began talking to “Tara” before moving his attention to her fictitious nine-year-old daughter, even suggesting he have sex with her for “educational purposes”.
He was arrested in April 2020 when police raided the home he lived at with his father and stepmother, with police seizing more than 30,000 files of nudist colony photos and videos featuring young girls.
In sentencing, Judge Frank Gucciardo said O’Halloran’s behaviour was “repugnant”.
“The transmission of material … in form of conversation and text are undoubtedly deplorable,” he said.
In August 2021, he was jailed for 24 months with a non-parole period of 12 months.
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Originally published as Named and shamed: Victorians caught with sickening child abuse material
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