LANAI SCARR, Senior Reporter, News Corp Australia Network
SICK Australian paedophiles are paying to watch live webcam abuse of babies as young as three-months-old as the latest figures show the rise of the shocking crime locally
New figures reveal the increasing prevalence of the horrific abuse of children via live webcam, predominantly from the Philippines.
In 2015/16 there were 99 prosecutions of Australians using a carriage service to procure or groom a person under the age of 16 — a nearly 150 per cent increase on the 40 prosecutions in 2008/9.
And News Corp Australia can reveal the Office of the eSafety Commissioner has already investigated more than 38,000 images and videos involving the sexual abuse of children this financial year alone.
Bryan Beattie was the first man charged with child cybersex trafficking in NSW.
Source: Police Media
A total of 8078 investigations have been completed from July 2016 to date, and 3807 URLs have been referred for take-down.
Those in the sector say more needs to be done to prosecute Australians for funding the abuse of children overseas.
The latest horrific crime involves paedophiles paying families or community leaders in the Philippines as little as $5 to receive access to a live feed of children being abused or abusing each other.
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In one case told to News Corp this week by Australian and Dutch police a seven-year-old boy had been directed to abuse his two-year-old sister.
Paedophiles pay for the “privilege” of being able to direct the abuse as it happens.
Often those involved — mostly men — have travelled over to the Asian nation to meet with their “clients” before returning to Australia to view the criminal activity from their homes or workplaces.
Currently there are a variety of offences relating to this type of activity carrying 20-year prison sentences, however those in the sector say more needs to be done to specifically target those engaging in child sex trafficking.
Last month the first person in Australia directly charged over the practice was named — Sydney man Bryan Walter Beattie, 44.
Beattie has pleaded guilty to 20 counts of causing a child to have sexual intercourse and one count of possessing child abuse.
Bryan Beattie was charged with cyber sex trafficking.
He will be sentenced next week.
The International Justice Mission will on Friday tell a federal senate inquiry into Human Trafficking that Australians are becoming increasingly involved in the practice.
The IJM works to free children involved in child sex trafficking in developing countries.
Kimberly Randle director of corporate for IJM said Australians were fuelling the crime and some of the ages of those abused were shocking.
“Fifty-four per cent of victims rescued in IJM cases are under 12 years old. The youngest was just 3 months old,” Ms Randle told News Corp Australia.
“Fundamentally, Australians are complicit.
We are fuelling this crime."
“The demand for this live-streamed, commissioned abuse of children is coming from our shores.”
Ms Randle said the IJM wanted to see the inclusion of cybersex trafficking into the National Action Plan to Combat to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery.
“It’s not currently included. To see cybersex trafficking shut down, it needs to be,” she said.
The Australian Federal Police said it worked closely with the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation and other Philippine Law Enforcement Agencies to combat child sexual exploitation in all its forms including pay-per-view abuse.
‘This co-operation includes sharing of information, joint operations and capacity building activities to support Philippine Law Enforcement Activities,” a spokesman said.
“Unfortunately, pay-per-view directed child abuse is only one way in which offenders exploit some of the most vulnerable people in society.
“When the AFP becomes aware of these abhorrent matters, it works to identify and prosecute Australian-based offenders and their networks, and engage our foreign law enforcement partners in relation to the identification of victims and those exploiting and abusing them.”
Detective Senior Seargent Cameron Burke from Task Force Argos — a specialist online sex offender squad based in Queensland — said there were two current active investigations involving a 40-year-old man and 50-year-old man.
Both men had been charged for possessing child sex material but investigations were still ongoing in relation to prosecution of their Philippines sex link.
“The children involved in their cases were under the age of 10,” Seargent Burke said.
Committed ... eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. Pic: Luke Marsden.
E-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said it was important for all agencies to work together to tackle this criminal activity.
“To be really effective, we know we need to be global in our outlook — particularly in the South East Asia region. With ongoing constructive partnerships, we can build strong links with agencies here in Australia and around the globe to provide the best possible help to victims of child sexual exploitation and image-based abuse,” Ms Inman Grant said.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan said Australians seeking out child sex material or committing crimes over live webcam would be prosecuted to the full extent.
“The exploitation of innocent young children is an abhorrent crime that will not be tolerated,” Mr Keenan told News Corp.
“Any person engaging in child exploitation, or viewing exploitative material, will be targeted by our law enforcement agencies in close partnership with our overseas counterparts.”
lanai.scarr@news.com.au
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