Man, 32, who convinced women to sexually abuse a baby and young children online avoids jail
An intellectually impaired man from Western Australia who convinced numerous women to sexually abuse their children online has avoided prison after the judge found that he had shown good progress in rehabilitation. Mathew David Taylor is charged with forcing several women to perform sex acts on a baby and young children over social media.
In 2018, the 32-year-old pleaded guilty to a number of child exploitation charges as he had manipulated many strangers for years to abuse their children online. There were a total of eight charges that included possessing, producing and distributing child exploitation material, attempting to indecently record a child and involving a child in exploitation.
After the plead, he was given an 18-month pre-sentence order encouraging treatment and rehabilitation in the Australian state, Daily Mail reported.
On Friday, April 17, Taylor returned to the WA District Court. However, Judge Ronald Birmingham hearing the case sparred him from jail as he believed the man had shown good progress in rehabilitation. While declaring his decision, judge Birmingham acknowledged that Taylor had already spent 15 months in prison and had since made gains with his rehabilitation.
“The gravity of the sexual activity portrayed is both depraved and disturbing ... the quantity of materials that you had is extraordinary. That you shared the material with others, again, just simply spreads the hurt and spreads the abuse into the community,” the judge said while giving him a suspended prison term of two-and-half-year suspended prison sentence that includes a program and supervision requirement.
According to court documents, Taylor’s first criminal activity dates back to 2015 when he chatted with two separate women via Skype and coerced them to perform sexual acts on a baby boy and a five-year-old girl. Later, he connected with a different woman while using a fake social media account and sent her some child exploitation images.
Investigators got to know about his illegal activities in February 2016 when they searched his house and found discs containing more than 30 videos. However, it is not clear how they got to know about him. Taylor was arrested after the February 2016 home search incident but was granted bail. While on bail, he continued with his illegal activities.
Between 2016 to 2017, he contacted another woman on social media and also threatened her to show images and videos he had received if she did not send more. He paid the woman for the material as well. Investigators searched his house again in April 2017, the court documents revealed.
Meanwhile, a former boss of a Sydney "reform" school has been given a jail term for sexually attacking young girls. The 82-year-old Noel Greenaway had horribly bashed and abused young vulnerable girls. His crimes include four victims at Parramatta Girls Training School between 1965 and 1967 and the fifth one at the Ormond School at Thornleigh between 1971 and 1973, 9News reported.
“He chose to exploit his power over the victims at his place of work and from where they could not escape. He treated his victims with disdain and cruelty,” a judge said while sentencing him to an aggregate term of 20 years, with a non-parole period of 10 years.