A 74-year-old North Fremantle man has been sentenced to 23 years’ jail as part of an international child protection investigation which also resulted in a couple being imprisoned in the Philippines and a child removed from harm by police.
The man was sentenced by the Perth District Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to 22 offences, including the sexual abuse of young children overseas.
The man, who must serve a non-parole period of 17 years’ imprisonment, also procured children overseas to be sexually abused at his direction, the court heard.
An investigation started in Australia in November 2022, after Australian Border Force (ABF) officers examined the man’s luggage when he arrived in Perth on a flight from the Philippines. During the search, ABF officers found a child abuse image on the man’s phone and seized multiple devices for further examination.
When ABF officers found more child abuse material on a laptop, including a deleted image which showed the man sexually abusing a child, they immediately alerted the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The Western Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (WA JACET), which comprises the AFP and Western Australia Police Force, executed a search warrant, with the assistance of ABF, at the man’s home on 28 November, 2022, and initially charged him with one offence.
Further inquiries led to JACET investigators searching a storage facility rented by the man, where they seized additional electronic devices. A forensic examination of the devices identified photographs and videos of the man sexually assaulting children.
Investigators also uncovered online conversations on a social media platform in which the man paid to procure children overseas to be sexually abused while he watched live over the internet.
WA JACET found evidence the North Fremantle man sexually abused three children in person while overseas and another 12, who were also not in Australia, remotely over the internet between 2013 and 2022. He also tried to procure another six children offshore to be sexually abused. The children were believed to be aged between two and 12 years old at the time of the abuse.
Police charged the man with further offences and on 22 March, 2024, he pleaded guilty to 22 charges.
As a result of the Australian investigation, AFP officers based in Manila provided information about the suspected identities of the Philippines-based child abuse facilitators to the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Centre.
The Philippines National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) then investigated those leads and in March 2023, they removed a young girl from harm and arrested her parents in the Philippines city of Mabalacat, north of Manila. In January, 2024, the man and woman were both sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to two counts each of attempted trafficking in persons.
Under Philippine laws, sexual offences against children fall under the definition of human trafficking. This contrasts with Australian laws, where a distinction is made between human trafficking and child protection offences.
AFP Commander Renee Colley said this investigation uncovered abhorrent offending which had harmed many young victims.
“The depraved nature of this type of behaviour steals the innocence of young children and has long-lasting psychological impacts,” Commander Colley said.
“At least one of these children was abused by her parents, the people who were supposed to protect her.
“The AFP and our partners, in Australia and overseas, will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of anyone involved in the exploitation or abuse of children; and are committed to protecting children wherever they live.
“We will continue to support Philippines authorities to try to identify all of the children abused by this man.”
ABF Commander Ranjeev Maharaj said ABF officers dealt with child abuse material on a daily basis at airports and mail/air cargo centres, and were all too aware of the impact it had on innocent young victims.
“ABF officers are on the front line at the border when it comes to stopping this appalling practice and their initial swift action in stopping this man as he re-entered the country has caused an incredible ripple effect that has been felt all the way to the Philippines,” Commander Maharaj said.
“I am thankful for the outstanding work of not only our frontline officers, our investigators and our digital forensic team, but also the work of our law enforcement partners here and in the Philippines that has led to this day.”
NBI Human Trafficking Division Chief Supervising Agent Olga Angustia-Gonzalez said: “The NBI Human Trafficking Division is a close partner of the Australian Federal Police and will continue to work collaboratively to rescue victims and bring perpetrators of this abhorrent crime to justice, wherever in the world they may live”.
