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Award‑winning Australian children’s author Craig Silvey jailed over child exploitation material

By · Via The Guardian · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The Western Australian District Court handed down a seven-month custodial sentence to the 44-year-old following his guilty plea to distributing and possessing child exploitation material. Investigators uncovered numerous category one photos and videos across his mobile phone and laptop during a police raid on his Fremantle residence. The court heard that he transitioned from an online pornography platform to an encrypted messaging app, where he explicitly detailed sexual desires involving children under the handle "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy." Although two additional charges regarding the production and possession of further illicit material were dropped in May, the scandal prompted publishers All…

Key points

  • Publishers Allen & Unwin and Fremantle Press responded to the charges by immediately term…: Publishers Allen & Unwin and Fremantle Press responded to the charges by immediately terminating promotional efforts for all of his books.
  • Educational and community reading programs throughout Australia took decisive action by p…: Educational and community reading programs throughout Australia took decisive action by pulling the majority of his published titles from their lists.
  • Two separate charges related to producing and possessing further child exploitation mater…: Two separate charges related to producing and possessing further child exploitation material were formally dropped prior to sentencing in May.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

The award‑winning author Craig Silvey sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys and was caught with explicit images of children and adults.

The young adult novelist was jailed on Monday for seven months after pleading guilty to distributing and possessing child exploitation material in January.

The 44-year-old was found with numerous category one photos and videos on his laptop and mobile phone when police raided his Fremantle home, the Western Australian district court heard.

Silvey, a father of three, also engaged in an online conversation with another user on a pornography website, where his handle was Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

In the chat, Silvey described himself as a “Fremantle guy” before telling the user “you sound amazing ... we have very similar interests, would love to chat more; do you have Signal or Session?”

The pair moved to an encrypted messaging app, where he said he was “extremely open-minded and obsessed with taboos” and preferred boys aged five-plus before adding that “eight was the perfect age”.

“I want to make out with little ones,” the author said in…

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