A Ringwood East man, 78, was sentenced today (23 March, 2026) in the County Court of Victoria to six years and six months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years for operating an invite-only dark web platform used to groom and exploit children.
The man operated a dark web site where he had sexual conversations with children and shared child abuse material. The platform recruited young people in Australia and overseas to discuss sexual activity with children and share child abuse material. The man had sexual conversations and shared child abuse material with boys aged 8 to 14 years old between November 2021 and January 2023.
The Victorian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET), comprising AFP and Victoria Police, started an investigation in June, 2022, after receiving a referral from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) about a man having sexualised conversations with children on the dark web. In July, 2023, the JACET executed search warrants in Ringwood East, Wantirna South and Healesville. Across the three properties, police seized four computers, a mobile phone, five digital storage devices, a combined 221 CDs and DVDs, 149 magazines and three books.
The man pleaded guilty on 17 October, 2025, to eleven online child abuse offences, including possession and transmission of child abuse material and maintaining an electronic service used for child abuse.
The case reflects sustained law enforcement pressure on dark web exploitation networks. The ACCCE received 82,764 reports of online child sexual exploitation across the 12 months to September 2025, compared to 58,503 reports in 2023/24, 40,232 in 2022/23 and 36,600 in 2021/22. This dramatic rise underscores both the scale of exploitation occurring online and the effectiveness of reporting mechanisms that have brought individual cases like this one to law enforcement attention.
For those seeking help or needing to report exploitation, the ACCCE operates a national reporting system. The ThinkUKnow program, led by the Australian Federal Police, provides education resources for parents and carers about online safety. If exploitation is occurring or a child is at immediate risk, contact police on 000.