Image: Finley Police Station. Photo by Mattinbgn/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Tocumwal man charged after detectives pose online as a child
A 22-year-old man from Tocumwal has been charged after NSW sex-crimes detectives allegedly posed online as a young girl during an investigation into child exploitation.
Police say Strike Force Trawler detectives began looking into the man’s online activity in May. According to NSW Police, officers from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit assumed the identity of a female child and allegedly spoke with the man online. Investigators allege those conversations became sexually explicit.
About 6am on Wednesday, 17 June, detectives executed a search warrant at a property in Tocumwal, the Riverina town sitting hard on the NSW-Victoria border. Electronic devices were seized. Police allege those devices contained child abuse material.
The man, named by the ABC as Aiden Nancarrow, was arrested and taken to Finley Police Station. NSW Police said he was charged with a string of offences, including using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material, making child abuse material available, procuring a person under 16 for sexual activity, possessing child abuse material, and using a carriage service to plan or procure sex.
He was refused bail and was due to face the NSW Local Bail Division Court on Thursday.
The case is ugly in the plainest sense. It is not a street shooting or a late-night brawl, but the sort of alleged offending police say is done through screens, private messages and hidden files. The public only sees the arrest. Detectives see the chats, the devices, and the slow work of proving who was behind the keyboard.
Strike Force Trawler is an ongoing NSW Police operation targeting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children facilitated through the internet and telecommunications devices. Police have urged anyone with information about child abuse material to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a confidential report online.
Source: ABC News and NSW Police.
