Man focused on own kids in sex chats

A CAIRNS father made sexually explicit comments about his own children over the internet to other child sex offenders.

The man was caught by Task Force Argos after he made multiple sexual comments on images of children aged five to 10, which had been uploaded to a Russian imagesharing site.

He was jailed for two-anda-half years to serve eight months.

Police searched his home while his partner and son were present and he revealed he had spoken to and swapped images with another man in Cairns, who he had met on website Craigslist.

The pair sent 420 emails to each other, 220 of which had come from the defendant, about their sexual interests in children.

“You each referred to your wives having no idea what you were up to,” Judge Tracy Fantin said.

His offending occurred between 2015 and 2016 and included detailing his sexual desires for his own son and daughter over a number of Skype conversations.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also told others over Skype that he’d had sex with a friend’s child and a family member’s child, who were aged four and six years.

He pleaded guilty in the Cairns District Court to multiple counts of making and distributing child exploitation material, which was in relation to the messages and comments he had sent and posted online.

Police found 121 images on his computer. He admitted to downloading child pornography images for his own sexual gratification. The court was told the man had been attending psychologist and psychiatrist sessions.

A psychological report said the man “complied with diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder, depressive type and pedophilic disorder”.

Judge Fantin said the man’s conduct was not a victimless crime.

“The production of child pornography and the distribution of it involves the exploitation and corruption of children who are not capable of protecting themselves,” she said. The man was placed on a three-year probation order to begin once he is out of jail.

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