Key Points
- Australia has the world’s third-highest number of INTERPOL Green notices, nearly all for child sex offenders.
- Green notices allow law enforcement bodies in INTERPOL member nations to share information about criminal activities.
- Hundreds of convicted and suspected child sex offenders have been tracked through Australian airports.
Authorities closely monitored the travel plans of some 700 people in the last financial year, with just under half triggering automatic warnings to INTERPOL and law enforcement in other nations.
Australia has the third highest number of INTERPOL Green notices in the world, with 94 per cent related to travelling child sex offenders and the rest to others convicted of serious crimes.
Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner David McLean said authorities overseas had spent considerable effort stopping children ending up in “horrible situations”.
However, he said all that work could be undone by relatively wealthy Australian predators paying to abuse children.
“This is an insidious crime type where prevention is much more important than any ‘cure’,” he said.
“The AFP is committed to working with our regional partners through INTERPOL to combat the abuse of children anywhere in the world, through every means at our disposal.”
Australians on the National Child Offenders System need permission to go overseas and are watched closely at international airports, with their details passed on to countries targeted by child abusers and other nations that want to be kept up to date on their whereabouts.
They often jet overseas, are refused entry at immigration and told to go home on the next available flight, according to the AFP.
Australia a ‘leading player in international police co-operation’
INTERPOL secretary general Jürgen Stock said Australia was proactive about warning other countries of the travel plans of known offenders.
“A leading player in international police cooperation, Australia has consistently demonstrated a strong and unwavering commitment to child protection, both online and in the real world,” Stock said.
INTERPOL Green notices provide warnings about a person’s criminal activities, where the person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety, and are available to law enforcement organisations in all member countries to consult in the organisation’s notices database.
Paedophile recently convicted of 55 offences
A paedophile who sexually abused vulnerable children in the Philippines and encouraged others to commit crimes will be eligible for release from jail after serving six years.
John Oldfield Nettleton pleaded guilty to 55 state and Commonwealth offences committed between March 2016 and April 2018.
The 40-year-old used two fake Facebook accounts to communicate with 38 victims and “like-minded” recipients.
He abused four children under the age of 16 in the Philippines in 2017 and kept recordings on his phone.
He also encouraged others to abuse kids overseas, said he would buy a boy from the slums and on occasions offered $150 for child exploitation material.
NSW man to face court on multiple child sex charges
Meanwhile, federal officers in Sydney have charged a man with assaulting a child in order to produce abuse material.
The 33-year-old was arrested during a raid on a home at Kingswood on Friday following reports from the United States National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
US authorities alleged he was transmitting child abuse material online.
The man will face court in November accused of multiple counts of using a child under the age of 14 to make child abuse material, sexually touching a child under 10 and using a device to access similar material.
The maximum penalties for the respective offences are 20 years, 16 years and 15 years in jail.
