The man behind a prolific international child pornography scam that bullied young children into sending naked images of themselves so they could be uploaded to the internet is a 42-year-old father-of-one from Wollongong, a court has heard.
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Abhijeet Kulkarni, an Indian national who has lived in Australia for six years and works as an IT specialist in the banking industry, fronted Wollongong Local Court on Monday on 13 charges stemming from a lengthy, covert investigation by officers attached to the NSW Police's internet child exploitation unit.
It will be alleged Kulkarni used his expertise in IT to troll the dark web for years preying on innocent victims by posing as a talent scout and using aliases and fake profiles to hide his own identity.
Court documents reveal Kulkarni's alleged actions were unmasked when a woman reported receiving child abuse material from Kulkarni after she posted an ad on Gumtree selling boy's clothing.
Officers reviewed the images and identified a 13-year-old boy from NSW, who told them he'd begun speaking with a person via the app 'Telegram' and had been bullied into sending them naked pictures of himself. Police will allege the person the boy was talking to was Kulkarni.
Among the material Kulkarni allegedly had access to was a large number of images featuring children in their school uniforms displaying student identification cards, including their name, date of birth, school and other identifying details.
Police say they have positively identified 18 victims so far, but a large number remain unidentified.
Meanwhile, detectives arrested Kulkarni last Friday and he was remanded in custody over the weekend.
In court on Monday, police opposed Kulkarni's application for bail in court on Monday, labelling him a threat to public safety.
"Investigators firmly believe the accused poses a significant and unacceptable risk to children in NSW, Australia and throughout the world through his online activities," detectives wrote in a seven-page statement of facts tendered to the court.
Kulkarni's lawyer, Graeme Morrison, said the fact sheet contained no details of the evidence police may have against his client and was based on assumptions that Kulkarni was guilty.
"No photos were found on any devices he owns, and he's given his passwords to police," Mr Morrison said.
He proposed Kulkarni be bailed to the unit in Wollongong he shares with his wife and their teenage child.
But Magistrate Jillian Kiely refused to release Kulkarni, agreeing with police that he posed a flight risk due to his strong links to India.
"The facts are extremely serious indeed," she said.
"They allege the exploitation of a number of child victims over a number of years...both in Australia and overseas."
She found there were no conditions that could mitigate the risk Kulkarni posed should he be released.
Kulkarni's case will return to court in April.