Bankruptcy law reform push after paedophile protects assets in superannuation
Edan van Haren was a teenager when he fell victim to child predator Maurice Van Ryn. (Supplied: Van Haren family)
In short:
In 2023, Edan van Haren was awarded $1.4 million in damages by the NSW Supreme Court after being abused by a convicted paedophile.
His abuser, Maurice Van Ryn, has since used legal loopholes to avoid paying damages.
What's next?
Advocates and politicians are calling on the federal government to change the Bankruptcy Act, which protects superannuation as an asset.
A victim of convicted paedophile Maurice Van Ryn says a legal loophole that prevents victims from receiving compensation from their abusers if they declare bankruptcy needs to be closed.
Edan van Haren was 14 when repeated sexual abuse began in 2010 at the home of Van Ryn, the former Bega Cheese boss, on the far south coast of New South Wales.
"It's like the age-old saying that if someone in a van gives you candy, don't go inside," Mr van Haren said.
"It's just that his candy was in the form of portraying himself as nice, kind and helpful, but it was all just to fulfil his own urges.
"He groomed everybody, but behind closed doors he was a monster."
Now aged 29, Edan van Haren is publicly calling for the law changes. (Supplied: Edan van Haren)
When Mr van Haren, who is now 29 and living in Adelaide, told family members of the abuse in 2016, Van Ryn was already in prison after being sentenced to 13 years in 2015 for abusing nine boys and girls since 2003.
It would be a further two years before Mr van Haren was ready to tell police, and in 2019 Van Ryn pleaded guilty to the abuse and was handed a further sentence of nine years.
The 69-year-old will be eligible for parole in April 2029.
In July 2023, after initially being offered $25,000 by Van Ryn's legal team, Mr van Haren was awarded $1.4 million in damages by the NSW Supreme Court.
Maurice Van Ryn will be in prison until at least 2029. (ABC News: Keva Gocher)
However, Mr van Haren is yet to see a cent of the money and may never get the compensation.
Earlier this year, his abuser declared bankruptcy, using a legal loophole that allows wealthy offenders to extinguish the victim payout while protecting their assets in superannuation.
Under current laws, superannuation cannot be accessed for victim compensation.
Mr van Haren is calling for an overhaul of the laws, including provisions that ensure debts related to child sexual assault claims survive bankruptcy.
"The court put a value on what he did to me, and I knew this would be a risk and that I would have to effectively change Australian law to be able to get anything out of it,"he said.
For more on this story, please continue reading on ABC Australia at:
Deported Kiwi child sex offender has Aussie rap sheet dating back almost a decade
The Kiwi child sex offender deported from Australia - and set to be sentenced on new charges in New Zealand - began offending almost a decade ago.
The Waikato Times can reveal further details of Jeffrey Waretana Jones’ offending ahead of his October sentencing on charges of possessing objectionable material, three charges of making objectionable material and one charge of failing to comply with reporting obligations.
He entered guilty pleas to the charges at Rotorua District Court back in August.
Jones was deported from Australia in 2021 and began offending back in New Zealand because, he claimed, he was “bored and should have got myself a job”.
Instead, Jones started creating online accounts “pretending to be a 15-year-old girl” and offering to send “videos of my girls”.
The police summary of facts noted that the 42-year-old was sentenced for child sexual offending at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court back in 2018, when he was also placed on the Child Sex Offenders Register “for life”.
However, thanks to information obtained by the Times from Australian authorities, we can reveal his first conviction was almost a decade ago in 2016.
That was when Jones was found guilty of indecently assaulting a child under 16.
He was sentenced to a 24-month Community Corrections Order and to report to Victoria Police for a period of 15 years.
In 2018, he was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment after breaching the Community Corrections Order, and he also received a further four month prison sentence, also in 2018, for possession of a firearm.
While the police summary of facts does not disclose how Jones’ latest offending in NZ was discovered, it noted he created online accounts in 2024 “pretending to be a 15-year-old girl, including the image of a teenage girl as his profile picture”.
“The purpose of creating both false accounts was to obtain access to child exploitation material.”
He used one account to join a group chat “and uploaded two videos of pubescent females with objectionable content”.
He also used online channels to tell another person or persons “I can send you videos of my girls”.
He then uploaded a video of a female aged between 10-13 years-old “with objectionable content”.
The summary notes the videos were 14 seconds and 48 seconds in length respectively.
In two recorded interviews with police Jones explained his failure to comply with his reporting obligations by saying “I was bored and should have got myself a job”.
He also told police “similar videos and photos would be found on his cell phone”, which police seized for further examination.
The summary also included disturbing details about child sex abuse online, noting that a two-year trial started back in 2009 by the Department of Internal Affairs found more than a million “clicks” on illegal websites were identified in New Zealand.
“Any sexual offence involving a child is horrific, but by photographing, filming and distributing images and movies of the abuse, the victim is victimised every time their image is viewed on the internet.
“The abused child carries this burden for the rest of their life.”
Even more disturbingly, the summary also noted an increasing trend towards younger victims and greater brutality.
“Infants and toddlers are being raped for the enjoyment of viewers.”
Jones is set to be sentenced on October 14.
Fifteen people arrested in NSW and SA
in child safety blitz
Fifteen people have been charged in a huge child safety blitz across two states, including one man who allegedly paid money to procure livestreamed child sex abuse material.
Fifteen people have been charged across NSW and South Australia in a major child protection blitz, including one man who allegedly paid money for overseas online live child sexual abuse on three occasions.
In NSW, eight men and one woman were charged with more than 30 online child sex abuse offences following the two-week operation.
In one horrific incident, police allege a 62-year-old Wyongah man on the state’s Central Coast had sexual intercourse with a child outside of Australia.
He has also been charged with causing child abuse material to be transmitted to self using a carriage service and one count of using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
Police allege he paid a child trafficker in the Philippines for live-streamed child sexual abuse, allegedly exchanging nearly 200 messages. This allegedly include three video calls, totalling to 56 minutes of live-streamed material.
He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail if convicted.
AFP Commander Brett James said anyone who sought to exploit or contributed to the “wider exploitation of children around the world by creating a demand for this abuse material” would be targeted by police.
“Perpetrators are indifferent to the harm they cause victims and are only motivated by their abhorrent desires,” Commander James said, with the investigation marking the end of National Child Protection Week.
“Our message to online offenders has not changed – if you commit these crimes, you will be found, arrested and prosecuted.”
The AFP’s Operation Titan noted a dramatic increase in reports of child exploitation, which ballooned by 41 per cent to 82,700 reports to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) year-on-year in 2024-25.
It also noted an increase in reports of child exploitation.
In South Australia, police made six arrests in six days through the South Australian Joint Anti Child Exploitation (JACET) team, with one case allegedly involving the sexual exploitation of a three-year-old.
AFP Commander Brett James said anyone who sought to exploit or contributed to the “wider exploitation of children around the world by creating a demand for this abuse material” would be targeted by police.
“Perpetrators are indifferent to the harm they cause victims and are only motivated by their abhorrent desires,” Commander James said, with the investigation marking the end of National Child Protection Week.
“Our message to online offenders has not changed – if you commit these crimes, you will be found, arrested and prosecuted.”
The AFP’s Operation Titan noted a dramatic increase in reports of child exploitation, which ballooned by 41 per cent to 82,700 reports to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) year-on-year in 2024-25.
It also noted an increase in reports of child exploitation.
In South Australia, police made six arrests in six days through the South Australian Joint Anti Child Exploitation (JACET) team, with one case allegedly involving the sexual exploitation of a three-year-old.
This included a 34-year-old Gawler East man who was charged with one count of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and three counts of online child abuse offences.
The man has been remanded in custody and will reappear in court on January 13.
Another 34-year-old Adelaide man was hit with four counts of online child sexual abuse offences, which allegedly including the possession and sharing of child abuse materials, he has been remanded in custody and will appear in court on December 15.
AFP Detective Sergeant Jarrod Cook said authorities were increasingly concerned about child safety due to the increase in young people accessing the internet.
He said more that 370 child victims, some just toddlers, had been identified and removed from further harm in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Southeast Asia since the SA JACET was formed in 2015.
“We issue this warning to any person who would seek to prey on children: The SA JACET team will use the full force of the law to find, expose and prosecute you – no matter when or where the abuse occurred. There is nowhere for you to hide,” he said.
“The AFP and its law enforcement partners will never stop fighting to bring online predators to justice and protect children from these horrific crimes.”
South Australia Police Chief Inspector George Fenwick urged parents to have conversations about the signs of predatory behaviour from online actors, including people on gaming platforms, where he was “predators often lurk”.
“Talk to them about what unsafe or inappropriate behaviour might look and feel like at home, in the community, online or at school – and make plans about what to do if they feel unsafe. Understand what children are doing online,” he said.
“Be aware of the manner in which offenders initially engage with children. Inappropriate engagement with children and grooming behaviour can be initiated through online gaming platforms.
“Offenders can pose as someone they are not on these platforms, where they make contact with children before encouraging them to move to another platform for private interactions.”
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