A former childcare worker and his partner,who abused dozens of children over nine years and filmed the acts,have been jailed for decades for hundreds of the “most evil crimes imaginable”.
The men’s maximum sentences of 37 years and 26 years are the culmination of a multinational investigation into a child abuse ring,which led to the arrest of 25 men,including a soccer coach,teacher and disability worker.
Some of the items seized under the widescale operation.Supplied
The former couple,who were aged between 18 and their early 20s at the time of their offences against 30 children,cannot be named for legal reasons.
These were laid bare as Judge Sarah Hopkins sentenced them at Downing Centre District Court in Sydney on Tuesday.
One man worked in a leadership role at a NSW daycare centre for two years of his nearly-decade-long paedophile crime spree,taking young children outside on “play dates” or when being the only carer in a room. His undoing began when a parent complained he had kissed one child on the lips.
Much of his crimes are too graphic to publish. Some took place at his parents’ home.
One of the men who was sentenced on Tuesday.Supplied
He groomed a young child he met on Facebook,convinced the child to sneak out of home and abused him. When the parents reported him missing to police,who knocked on the man’s door,he told the child to hide inside.
He pleaded guilty to 248 offences,including sexually abusing a very young child and using a young child to make child abuse material. He admitted to abusing more than 20 children over nine years and exchanging the material on chat platforms such as Snapchat to other paedophiles.
His former partner pleaded guilty to 106 child abuse offences against at least eight children.
Hundreds more charges were dropped against both men during a plea deal.
One of the offenders,dressed in a grey jumper,abused dozens of children.Supplied
Hopkins said one man played a submissive role to his “coercive and controlling” partner,becoming involved in the heinous crimes because his lover threatened to end their relationship or his own life if he didn’t. They regularly concealed each other’s offending.
The judge said the abuse they recorded was of “extreme depravity,” with 29,500 video files and more than 100,000 images found on one man’s device upon his arrest on June 4,2020.
Both men have been in custody since their arrests four years ago.
“Early sexual relationships with adults will often exploit and exacerbate a precarious sense of self-worth and self-respect with the victim,which may have lifelong consequences,including the inability to form stable partnerships in adulthood and possible self-destructive behaviour,” Hopkins said.
The court heard both men were abused by others as children.
The first man was sentenced to 37 years jail with non-parole period of 26 years.
The other man was sentenced to 26 years in prison with a non-parole period of 16 years and nine months.
The sentences were for a combination of Commonwealth and state child abuse charges.
How Australia’s largest online child abuse investigation unfolded
The former couple were the last major targets of the Australian Federal Police’s sweeping Operation Arkstone investigation,which resulted in the sentencing of 25 men. More than 50 children and 11 dogs were saved from harm.
AFP Commander Kate Ferry said police were relentless in their pursuit of anyone producing and sharing child abuse material.
AFP officers search a NSW home for child abuse material in 2022.Supplied
“Operation Arkstone began as a result of one small piece of information. What the AFP and its domestic and international law enforcement partners uncovered in the weeks and months that followed was truly some of the worst offending we have ever seen,” Ferry said.
“The criminal behaviour of these two men is perhaps the most disturbing representation of what child sex offenders are capable of,being the systemic sexual abuse of children over many years,across geographical locations and by people who have been entrusted with so much responsibility.”
Ferry said some of the men arrested under Arkstone were meant to keep children safe,but used their position to commit some of the most evil crimes imaginable.
She acknowledged the courage of the victims and their families.
Operation Arkstone began in the small town of Wyong on the Central Coast in early 2020.
Child abuse investigators discovered a mobile and USB sitting in the bedroom of the home of 29-year-old Justin Radford,a separate man to the childcare worker and his partner.
The sweeping Operation Arkstone investigation resulted in the sentencing of 26 men.Supplied
On those devices,they encountered some of the most depraved material they had ever witnessed.
On February 11,2020,Radford pleaded guilty to 17 crimes,including filming himself sexually assaulting a young boy and sending child abuse material to 19 people online.
He was jailed for 18 years.
A few months later,in Sydney’s western outskirts,police arrested soccer coach Grant Harden,who pleaded guilty to 179 offences,including sex with a child under 10 and disseminating thousands of child sex abuse videos and images.
Two years ago,Harden was sentenced to 30 years with a minimum of 22 years. He is in the process of appealing his sentence with the court.
If this article has raised issues for you,support is available by phoning the National Sexual Assault,Family&Domestic Violence Counselling Line 1800 737 732;Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491;Lifeline 13 11 14.