Central Victorian child molester jailed

By Whitney Harris
Updated November 7 2012 - 4:21am, first published January 24 2011 - 10:18am
Central Victorian child molester jailed
Central Victorian child molester jailed

A CENTRAL Victorian man who videotaped himself sexually abusing young children has been jailed for 12 years and will be registered as a serious sex offender for the rest of his life.Jason Spradbury, 37, a piggery worker, used stolen pig lubrication on at least one of his three victims. Almost 58,000 images and videos of child pornography were found on his computer. They included images of bondage and bestiality. In many of the graphics, the children were visibly upset and crying.Spradbury pleaded guilty to 38 child sex offences in the Bendigo County Court in November last year.They included 21 counts of committing an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, 11 counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16, two counts of possessing child pornography and one count each of procuring a child for child pornography, producing child pornography, using a carriage service to make child pornography and using a carriage service to access child pornography. He also pleaded guilty to one count of cannabis possession.He was sentenced in the Victorian County Court in Melbourne yesterday.Judge Lance Pilgrim said the images found on his computer sank to the depths of depravity, were “particularly taxing’’, and the “very worst” he had encountered.“Huge in number, and revealing in appalling detail,” he said.“This type of offending is to be denounced in the strongest terms.”Spradbury, who grew up in a small central Victorian town north of Bendigo, had a happy upbringing; however, had struggled with drugs and alcohol as well as his sexuality during his teenage years and early 20s. He was co-operative with police when they arrested him last February, but continued to reoffend while on bail and was taken into custody in April. He has given no reason for his offending.“You have grossly betrayed the trust of each of these young children,” Judge Pilgrim said.Spradbury will serve a minimum of nine years behind bars before being eligible for parole.The prosecution had asked for a maximum jail term of 12 to 15 years.– with AAP

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