Richard James Roy, 61, was already in custody when he faced the ACT Supreme Court for his sentencing on Thursday. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.
Over more than a decade, a man encouraged the sexual abuse of eight children online and collected hundreds of files of extremely graphic and depraved child abuse material.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum warned those in the ACT Supreme Court before she started reading Richard James Roy’s sentence on Thursday (2 October) that her judgment contained offensive material.
The extent of Roy’s revolting crimes was revealed when police raided the then-56-year-old’s home in Kambah in January 2021 and seized his electronic devices.
They discovered he had collected 524 videos of child abuse material showing pre-pubescent and pubescent male and female children.
Some videos appeared to be recordings of online live streams, and the viewers of these streams ranged from four to 180,000.
Chief Justice McCallum said some children were as young as four, and the videos, which were “meticulously organised” and “extremely disturbing”, contained several unknown children.
“Some of the material depicts extreme cruelty and degradation,” she said.
Roy had also repeatedly used a carriage service for sexual activity with eight unidentified girls.
The videos of these incidents showed he often wore a mask or hid his face from the camera when interacting with the children.
Nine videos showed him encouraging the eighth girl, who looked 15, to engage in sexual communications over several months.
“This is an offence of significant seriousness involving the deliberate corruption and sexualisation of a young girl,” Chief Justice McCallum said.
He also downloaded 36 videos of child abuse material via a peer-to-peer network from 2017 to 2019.
During their search, police found Roy had a green notebook at his home containing many terms and phrases that he admitted he used to search for child abuse material.
Roy pleaded guilty to two counts of using a carriage service for sexual activity with a person under 16.
He also pleaded guilty to single counts of possessing child abuse material via a carriage service, producing child exploitation material and accessing child abuse material using a carriage service.
He was already in custody by the time of his sentencing and sat between custodial officers in the courtroom, sporting long grey hair and a bushy beard.
Chief Justice McCallum said Roy only pleaded guilty “minutes” before she was supposed to start watching the videos involved in the case, and she noted how a psychologist had avoided asking him about his crimes because at the time his defence lawyers said his position was defensible.
She thought all offences sat at the high end of objective seriousness.
Prosecutors said the crimes took place over 11 years through the 2010s and only stopped when he was arrested, while defence lawyers argued the offending had to be understood in the context of how he suffered from stress and isolation for many years.
Roy claimed he was stressed or depressed due to being bullied, but Chief Justice McCallum said it appeared he thought this because he had to work for a female manager whom he didn’t respect.
The chief justice accepted he had been lonely and isolated for many years, suffered from relatively severe depression and more recently had “some kind of epiphany” in acknowledging his offences.
Roy was convicted and sentenced to a total of 10 years’ imprisonment, with a seven-year non-parole period, backdated to account for time served. This means he will be eligible for release from custody in March 2032.
After the judge left the courtroom, the now-61-year-old turned to his supporters in the court’s gallery, shrugged, then waved at them before he was led away.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT on 02 6280 0900, Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. In an emergency, call triple zero.
Worth noting for readers that this same ACT Revenue office who just got their LVC (market value)… View