MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — FourSydneymen have been charged with criminal offenses over their alleged involvement in the distribution of child sexual abuse material linked to an international child sex abuse ring, police said Monday.
A New South Wales state police task force identified the Sydney-based network while investigating the online distribution of encrypted child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic and satanic themes, Det. Supt. Jayne Doherty said.
"There's no run-of-the mill child abuse, it's all abhorrent child abuse," Doherty told reporters.
"But these ones were particularly devastating in that they use symbols and rituals around … their discussions that they were having about abusing children. It had a very ritualistic overview," she added.
Police executed multiple warrants around Sydney last Thursday and four men were arrested.
Police also seized electronic devices allegedly containing thousands of videos depicting the abuse of children from babies to 12-year-olds.
"Police will allege in court that this international group were engaging in conversations and the sharing of material which depicted child abuse and the torture of children involving symbols and rituals linked to Satanism and the occult," Doherty said.
Doherty said police did not believe that the defendants recorded any of the abuse material that they shared.
Police were working with their international partners to identify the victims, where they had been abused and their abusers, Doherty said.
No victim had been identified by Monday, she said.
Police said one of those arrested, Landon Germanotta-Mills, 26, played a leading role in the ring.
Also arrested were Stuart Woods Riches, 39, Mark Andrew Sendecky, 42, and Benjamin Raymond Drysdale, 46.
All four were charged with various offenses relating to spreading child abuse material online. Germanotta-Mills was also charged with disseminating and possessing bestiality material, also a criminal offense.
Legal Aid NSW, which is representing Germanotta-Mills, declined to comment to the AP on Monday. Julian Balloot, the lawyer representing the other three defendants, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
All four were refused bail and will appear in court next in late January.
