Central Victorian man guilty of 38 child sex charges

By Whitney Harris
Updated November 7 2012 - 4:10am, first published November 24 2010 - 10:32am
Guilty: Jason Spradbury leaves court.
Guilty: Jason Spradbury leaves court.

A CENTRAL Victorian man who used lubrication designed for pigs on a victim has pleaded guilty to 38 child sex and pornography offences.Jason Spradbury, 37, a piggery assistant for most of his life, assaulted two boys over a seven-year period.He fondled the boys and performed oral and anal sex, using pig lubrication stolen from his work on one of his victims. Spradbury also took pictures of the naked boys, and videoed himself sexually assaulting them.Spradbury appeared in the Bendigo County Court yesterday.His charges 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. Mr Jones said a lot of the images had been downloaded from a file-sharing site, in which Spradbury was a member. Chat room conversations between him and other users indicated he knew the police were onto him and that he knew what he was doing was wrong.The court was told 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 in February, but continued to reoffend while on bail and was taken into custody in April. Spradbury also pleaded guilty to one drug possession offence.The defence has asked for a comprehensive psychiatric report before Spradbury is sentenced.He will be sentenced by Judge Lance Pilgrim in the Melbourne County Court on January 24.Crown prosecutor Peter Jones said that in February this year, Australian Federal Police raided Spradbury’s central Victorian home. Almost 54,000 images and 3751 videos of child pornography were found on his computer and hard drive.The graphics depicted children engaged in sex with other children, children having sex with adults, and bestiality.In some of the pictures children were tied up with tape, ropes and chains, were gagged or handcuffed and were being sexually penetrated by adults, the court was told.Some of the videos also included sexual activity between children, dogs and pigs. The children were visibly upset and crying in some of the images and videos.A number of pictures and videos of the victims were also found on Spradbury’s computer; they did not involve bestiality or animals.

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