Groomed for child porn, girl’s innocence traded – for a pink hippopotamus

Rebecca Michels and fiance Craig Stanley.

Rebecca Michels and fiance Craig Stanley.

A man who was on the run with his fiancee for 21 days after a child pornography raid on their Langwarrin home had been a member of a nudist club, a court heard today.

Craig Stanley would attend nudist swimming nights for adults and children at Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre.
Children aged under 18 have since been barred from attending the fortnightly events.

Stanley, 28, and Rebecca Michels, 25, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court today on child pornography charges.

Stanley, a former soldier and private detective, pleaded guilty to three charges of making, possessing and transmitting child pornography.

Michels pleaded guilty to making child pornography. The charge carries a maximum 10 years’ jail.

Prosecutor Anne Hassan told the court Michels had moved from Darwin to live with Stanley in January 2011.  The couple had been in a relationship when Michels was in her teens and got back together after Stanley contacted her again.

Police raided their home on October 27 last year after a tipoff from the FBI and found Stanley’s large collection of child pornography, including more than 17,000 photographs and 531 films.

The collection included a total of 279 pornographic photographs of a young girl taken over a two-year period from when she was aged from about seven to 10 years old.

Ten of the photos were of the young girl and Michels taken on August 27 last year during two photo sessions when they were both naked.

When later interviewed by police, the young girl said Stanley had given her gifts, including a pink hippopotamus.

Ms Hassan said Stanley had been ‘‘grooming’’ the young girl.

‘‘She’s a deeply exploited child in my submission,’’ the prosecutor said.

She urged magistrate Jack Vandersteen not to accept a psychological report which claimed Stanley was not a pedophile and his risk of offending was low.

Stanley and Michels were on the run for 21 days after the police raid on their home before being arrested in Dimboola, near Horsham, on November 18.

Defence lawyer Jim Dounias, for Stanley, told the court the young girl had been photographed naked after nights spent at the Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre’s night-time nudist swimming sessions.

Asked by Mr Vandersteen why Stanley crossed the line and start to take pornographic pictures of the young girl, Mr Dounias said it was unclear.

Mr Vandersteen said that at some point Stanley had gained the child’s trust to do what she did.

‘‘This doesn’t happen in a vacuum,’’ he said.

Mr Dounias said the line was crossed in the setting of ‘‘a nudist environment’’ as the young girl would regularly go along to the nudist swimming sessions.

He said Stanley accepted full responsibility for what had happened and Michels was not to blame.

Mr Vandersteen said he would not jail Michels and ordered her to be assessed for a community corrections order at 2pm today.

He said he planned to sentence both Stanley and Michels later today.

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