Overview

• Police executed 15 search warrants between August 28 and September 11 across Sydney, the Central Coast and the Southern Highlands, involving more than 140 officers and seizing over 50 electronic devices.
• Eight men and one woman were charged with offences linked to possession, distribution and facilitation of child abuse material, with maximum penalties ranging from 10 to 20 years, and police said none currently hold jobs with access to children.
• A 62-year-old Wyongah man allegedly exchanged nearly 200 messages and paid a Filipino trafficker for three live-streamed abuse calls totaling 56 minutes, appeared in court and was remanded in custody to reappear on November 7.
• Cranebrook resident Jesse Kristal Hopkins, a children’s face painter, was charged with possessing and transmitting child abuse material after police alleged she uploaded 14 files and received about 100 illicit videos and images, and she was granted bail with strict conditions.
• IT worker Jack Fennell faced seven charges after police alleged he posed online as a girl named “Emma” to interact with underage boys and sent or received illicit material, with phones and computers seized in a joint raid and bail granted.