An ex-McDonald's worker put on a state-wide watch list for sex offenders after being busted with child porn at his Bellambi home has admitted he failed to tell police he was using the social media apps TikTok and Telegram.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dean Oldfield pleaded guilty to a single charge of possessing child abuse material at Wollongong Local Court on July 21 last year after police seized 31 illicit images from his mobile phone six months earlier.
Court documents reveal the collection of images included pictures of naked girls, aged between 6 and 15, performing sex acts. Some of the more extreme images showed acts of bestiality.
When interviewed, Oldfield claimed he'd tried to delete the pictures when he realised he'd downloaded them, but claimed he'd exceeded his 2GB limit on the 'Drop Box' app and had to pay to get the items deleted. However, police discovered Oldfield had set the files up in a hidden folder on the phone.
Magistrate Imad Abdul-Karim sentenced Oldfield to a 30-month community correction order, with 100 hours of unpaid community service work.
In the wake of his conviction, Oldfield was placed on the Child Protection Register for eight years, which requires him to complete yearly forms updating his personal information with the police who monitor compliance with the register.
Under the terms of the CPR, Oldfield is also required to disclose his social media accounts and their usernames and passwords to police within seven days of creating them.
Court documents reveal Oldfield breached that condition twice in quick succession this year after he was busted failing to disclose internet usernames to police in June/July and again in September.
The court heard when Oldfield turned up to Wollongong Police Station on July 12 to do his annual CPR update report it soon became apparent to detectives he had failed to disclose a number of usernames to active social media accounts including TikTok, Steam and Telegram.
When questioned, Oldfield said he had activated the social media accounts six weeks earlier, but could not explain why he had failed to report it to police.
Meanwhile, police attended Oldfield's house just two months later for a surprise CPR compliance check, only to discover he had more undisclosed email addresses and usernames.
These ones included a Gmail email address, two usernames linked to separate YouTube accounts and further accounts with Xbox and the group video chat app Houseparty.
"The accused could offer no reason for not reporting the usernames or the email address to police delegates in accordance with his obligations," detectives said in court documents.
Oldfield was charged with two counts of breaching his reporting obligations.
He pleaded guilty to both charges in court this week.
He remains on bail and will face sentencing on February 8 next year.
Read more Illawarra court and crime stories here.
The Illawarra Mercury newsroom is funded by our readers. You can subscribe to support our journalism here.
Sign up for breaking news emails below ...
