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A registered child sex offender, a 50-year-old man, has been charged with accessing and transmitting child abuse material following a police operation yesterday.
In September 2025, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received a referral detailing an online user on private messaging applications sharing his sexual interest in children.
In December 2025, police obtained further information identifying the registered child sex offender as the likely user of these private messaging applications.
In February 2026, the man attended his annual Child Sex Offender Registry Team (CSORT) interview and failed to declare the use of the private messaging applications.
Yesterday (Thursday, 9 April 2026), members of the ACT Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET), executed a search warrant at the man’s residence.
Electronic devices containing child abuse material were seized during the warrant.
The 50-year-old man was subsequently arrested. He will face the ACT Magistrates Court today (Friday, 10 April 2026) charged with two counts of using a carriage service for child abuse material and two counts of failing to report.
Further analysis is being conducted on the seized devices and police expect to lay additional charges.
Anyone with information regarding the accessing or creation of child abuse material is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website. Information can be provided anonymously.
Note to media: use of term ‘child abuse material’, not ‘child pornography’
Use of the phrase “child pornography” benefits child sex abusers because it:
Indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and conjures images of children posing in ‘provocative’ positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.
Each photograph captures an actual situation where a child has been abused. This is not ‘pornography”.