Overview
- The 78-year-old Ringwood East man received six years and six months in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday, with a non-parole period of four years.
- He pleaded guilty in October 2025 to 11 offences, including possessing and sharing child abuse material and grooming and procuring children in Australia and the United States.
- Investigators found he ran an invite-only site on the dark web between November 2021 and January 2023 that recruited boys aged about 8 to 14 from Australia and overseas for sexual chats and the sharing of abuse material.
- The joint Victoria Police–AFP team opened the case after a June 2022 referral from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation and, in July 2023, raided three homes and seized computers, storage devices, 221 CDs and DVDs, 149 magazines and three books, with forensics confirming child abuse material and his role as site administrator.
- AFP acting Commander Simone Butcher said the case shows online child predators will be identified, prosecuted and face significant jail time.