A Melbourne man has been jailed for more than 11 years for paying children from the Philippine island of Cebu to video sex acts on a webcam, while another Australian has been arrested on the resort island that has become a hub for international paedophile rings.
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Patrick Ronald Goggins, 68, will serve a minimum prison sentence of eight years after pleading guilty in the Victorian County Court on Monday to more than 20 child sex offences involving Filipino children as young as three years old.
The Australian Federal Police found that Goggins paid more than $15,000 for the personalised sex shows that were live-streamed to a computer in his Cheltenham home.
Goggins’ victims included four sisters aged between five and 15 years old who were instructed to perform a range of sickening acts on webcam in return for $2339.
AFP officers uncovered 2600 pornographic images of children as young as three when they raided his Centre Dandenong Road property in April 2013.
When questioned by police, the Vietnam veteran said his victims would be ‘‘out on the scrap heap, living on the rubbish’’ if he did not pay them to perform.
Judge Sandra Davis said Goggins had remorselessly exploited young children from impoverished communities while using an alias to protect his anonymity.
"The sums paid to the victims indicate that you were willing to exploit the vulnerability of these children for your own sexual gratification, showing no regard for their welfare. You actively encouraged sexual abuse of these children and gave instructions about what you wanted to view,’’ Judge Davis said.
Fairfax Media can also reveal that Peter James Robinson, 51, has been charged with trafficking and child pornography offences on Cebu last week, after images of naked children and adults were discovered on a USB plug allegedly in his possession.
Based in Manila for the past two years, Mr Robinson has denied any wrongdoing.
‘‘I came to Cebu to swim, drink, eat ... this is the first time I have been arrested. I am confused. I feel outnumbered because I am a foreigner,’’ Mr Robinson told Filipino media.
In July last year, Hilton Reece Munro, 45, a former teacher at Melbourne’s Scotch College and head of an international school in China, was charged over the alleged sexual abuse of four boys on Cebu.
Police claim that affidavits from some of the boys described how they were taken to his room in batches, molested and videotaped.
Mr Munro, who denies the allegations, remains in jail awaiting trial.
Fairfax Media does not suggest any link between the three cases.
But authorities in Cebu say they are alarmed by the recent surge in online pornography businesses that cater predominantly to foreign-based paedophiles.
Agents of the US’s Homeland Security launched a joint investigation with Philippine law enforcement agencies last year which dismantled a cyber-sex operation based in the impoverished township of Cordova, on Cebu.
Philippine Senator Loren Legarda said that in one case, five sisters aged as young as two were sexually abused in front of a webcam by their own parents.
‘‘What could be more painful and traumatic than being exposed to strangers, while being exploited by one’s own parents at the very place they call home?’’ Senator Legarda told the Philippine Senate.
