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Thirty-five men across Victoria and NSW are facing more than 1000 criminal charges after police spent a year infiltrating and dismantling a secret paedophile network in one of Australia’s most significant online child sexual abuse investigations.
Members of the online encrypted group allegedly shared collections of child sexual abuse material and texted each other about depraved fantasies, including their desire to find children and infants in real life.
The material depicted the sexual abuse, torture and murder of infants and young children and bestiality.
Twenty-six men have been arrested and charged as a result of the investigation in Victoria, and another nine have been arrested in NSW.
Police said no newly generated material involving Australian children was identified during the investigation, and it was believed the offending in the material being shared occurred offshore.
The year-long undercover investigation by the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police’s Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) began in late 2023 after Queensland police shared intelligence about the group.
Police examined more than 300 hours of distressing video footage and 65,000 unique images as part of the operation.
Investigators said the men mistakenly believed the app’s encryption would shield them from detection by authorities.
As part of the operation, a team of investigators went undercover posing as members of the group so they could infiltrate the online network and gather evidence to identity and arrest the men.
Victoria Police Detective Sergeant Jason Regan worked on the operation, and has been a police officer in the child exploitation space for more than eight years.
“It was very horrific sex offending,” he said. “It was some of the worst stuff we’ve ever dealt with.”
“It was a group that we were able to infiltrate, but also in that space, we also had to speak like them.”
Regan said the undercover investigators faced the difficult task of maintaining conversations with the members for almost a year, while trying to identify the offenders.
“You’re just trying to get some little piece of information … any snippet of their life that you can to work on and try and identify them,” he said.
The investigation also sparked a major international manhunt. Nineteen referrals were made to Australian and international agencies.
“We had so many offenders identified, not just in Victoria, but also in New South Wales and overseas as well,” Regan said.
He said that after every arrest, an offender’s devices would be searched.
Investigators would find out who they were talking to and sharing material with. Police then arrested those alleged offenders and examined their devices, triggering a cascade of arrests.
“It’s like a pyramid scheme that just starts with one person and then just spreads out,” he said.
“We’re getting a lot more offenders based on the information or intelligence we’re able to gather from people’s devices.”
Dozens of police from investigations, covert operations, digital forensics and victim identification worked on the operation known as Jac Beau.
More than 30 search warrants were executed all over Melbourne and homes were raided in suburbs including Ascot Vale, Flemington, Greenvale, Wollert, Reservoir, Kingsbury, Chirnside Park, Cranbourne West, Clyde, Kew, Richmond, South Melbourne, Williamstown and Footscray.
Search warrants were also executed in Bendigo. Police seized about 100 electronic devices during the raids.
The 35 men were charged with a range of offences including possession, accessing, transmission, solicitation and production of child sexual abuse material.
A 46-year-old Melbourne man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was identified as the group’s creator and administrator. He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in September 2024 at the Victorian County Court.
A Central Victorian man, who also cannot be named, was charged with more than 250 offences including transmitting, accessing, producing and soliciting child abuse material.
He was sentenced to six years imprisonment in December last year.
Several other alleged perpetrators are still being prosecuted, while others have been sentenced and jailed.
After years policing organised crime, Regan said moving into child exploitation investigations had been challenging, but he was motivated to protect children through investigations such as Jac Beau.
He recalled that at the end of a different investigation, a mother had asked to take a photograph of him so when her son was old enough she could show him the person who had saved his life.
“Those sort of things stay with you forever,” he said.
Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Bernard Geason said the material uncovered in the operation was “so abhorrent and extreme” it had shaken even the most seasoned child protection investigators.
“This investigation has stopped people sharing violent abuse material and disrupted an online market of misery, but there is a tidal wave of this material on the internet and constant demands for more,” he said.
“Each of the men charged during this investigation likely thought they were cloaked and hidden behind layers of encryption. Let this be a reminder that law enforcement is everywhere.”
Australian Federal Police Sergeant Cassandra Barlee, who also worked on the investigation, said the material was among the worst she had ever seen in her years working in victim-based crime.
“The victims are extremely vulnerable, being young children,” she said.
“As an investigator in that space, I feel extremely passionate about it because we are protecting children, and we’re providing those children with a voice.”
Investigators continue to assist global efforts to identify the children in the videos and images, and all material that was uncovered has been added to the International Child Sexual Exploitation database.
This will help overseas law enforcement to piece together clues, which could identify victims, their locations and offenders.
Barlee said the rapid evolution of technology, including end-to-end encryption, has increased risks of child exploitation and expanded the reach of offending.
She urged parents to closely supervise their children’s use of social media and understand who they were communicating with and which platforms or applications they were using.
They should also familiarise themselves with the safety features and built-in protections available on those platforms.
Extra welfare measures were introduced to support police who shared the workload of operation Jac Beau.
Barlee said the toll of working on such a harrowing operation never left investigators.
After the completion of Jac Beau, she decided to take a break from working in the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team.
“When you work in crime types like this, you lose a sense of the innocence of the world,” she said.
Investigators have completed their investigation and the online group has been shut down.
More information and resources on how parents and guardians can protect children is available on the eSafety website.
The Australian government has funded an expanded child sexual abuse prevention service by Jesuit Social Services called Stop It Now! It offers free, anonymous support – including a helpline and online resources – for anyone concerned about sexual thoughts involving children.
Sexual assault support lines:
Melissa Cunningham is a crime and justice reporter for The Age. She has previously covered health.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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