Holiday on a wave of sex abuse
AFP’S new move to seize assets of child porn tourist
A BELGIAN tourist who paid for his lavish Australian holiday by selling “abhorrent” videos and photos of child abuse has become the first convicted child exploitation offender in this country to have his assets restrained.
Bryan Loyson, 26, appeared to be living the dream, posting photos of himself on social media surfing on the NSW south coast, soaking in a bath with a glass of red wine at the luxury Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour hotel and skydiving at Mission Beach in tropical North Queensland.
His Instagram profile declared: “Dreams don’t work unless you do” — but it appears he wasn’t funding his trip by picking fruit.
After receiving a tip-off from the US that a man in Australia was uploading child abuse to Snapchat, the Australian Federal Police Child Protection Team began investigating in early 2019.
The team discovered the user was advertising a website selling explicit child abuse material on multiple social media platforms.
The user was also the administrator of a website that sold “packs” of child abuse material videos and images for $US50 — each pack containing dozens of videos obtained online, showing the abuse and exploitation of children across the world.
The AFP identified the user as a Belgian national, who came from Thailand to Australia in November 2018. The man, who had been travelling around the country on a three-month holiday, was staying at a Sydney youth hostel when he was arrested in April 2019.
Loyson pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Downing Centre District Court on October 15 this year, receiving a maximum of four years in jail, with a non-parole period of 2½ years.
The AFP discovered Loyson had been selling the material since September 2018 and the proceeds had funded his lifestyle and round-the-world holidays.
In addition to his jail sentence, Loyson’s assets have been frozen as part of a new aggressive strategy initiated by AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, for the first time targeting the assets of offenders convicted of child exploitation offences.
Two bank accounts — one in Australia holding about $16,400, and another in Germany holding €8000 — plus camera equipment, a drone and scuba diving gear, with a combined estimated worth of $30,000 were restrained by the Afp-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce in the NSW Supreme Court on October 8. AFP investigators also identified about $US19,000 in profits from the website.
The taskforce will now start a civil case to determine if the assets of child sex offenders can be confiscated.
AFP CACT acting national manager Stefan Jerga said: “If a child sex predator is profiting from — or involves their property in — their criminal activity, their home, vehicle, bank accounts and other assets are at risk of being restrained and confiscated.”