by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Springvale registered sex offender has been jailed for transmitting “depraved” child abuse material and grooming an apparent child on the internet.
Cody Leigh Radford, then 23, had chatted online with a purported 15-year-old girl ‘Charlie’ for two weeks up to 11 January 2022.
On the encrypted app Snapchat, he sent sexualized messages and explicit photos to the ‘girl’, who was actually an undercover police officer.
After requesting to swap “nudes”, Radford asked: “Wanna come to mine today?”
The next day, Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team police raided his home.
On his phone and laptop were more than 2500 images and photos of child abuse material involving adults with toddlers, pre-pubescent children and teen juveniles.
Of them, 122 were rated at the highest category of seriousness. The rest were category 2, including some animations.
Radford, now 25, pleaded guilty to the related charges at the County Court of Victoria, including soliciting and sending images and videos to three other Kik users.
Sentencing judge Peter Rozen said Radford had been “creating a market” for the “shocking” and “abhorrent material” – though not for sale or profit.
Children as young as toddlers were being exploited in “vile and degrading circumstances”, the judge said.
Despite being aware of the 15-year-old girl’s ‘age’ from the outset, Radford chose to continue his “course of solicitation” with the aim of procuring sex.
It was noted that no specific meeting arrangements were made with ‘Charlie’.
Radford also pleaded guilty to failing to report his Discord and Snapchat usernames to police. He was required to do so as a registered sex offender.
As a teen, Radford was introduced to child abuse material and how to access it by a convicted adult paedophile, who has since been jailed again.
Radford had prior convictions in Brisbane in 2018 for indecent treatment of children under 16, and so faced mandatory minimum jail terms of four years.
Radford received discounts for pleading guilty and cooperating fully with police. His mental health issues including ADHD, anxiety, borderline personality disorder were noted.
However, the need to deter others outweighed his youth and “guarded” rehabilitation prospects, Judge Rozen said.
Radford’s jail term of four years and 10 months included 646 days in pre-sentence detention.
He will be eligible for parole after serving two years and five months.
