‘Premeditated, systematic and large-scale’: Shepparton paedophile jailed

The 49-year-old was sentenced in Melbourne County Court on July 8 after pleading guilty to 46 charges.

Judge Helen Syme described Robertson’s offending between October 2018 and February 2021 as “premeditated, systematic and large-scale”, where he used false personas on Instagram to engage victims with the aim of obtaining child abuse material.

“It shows a degree of calculated and perverse manipulation of young children,” she said.

“Any remorse appears to be self-directed pity rather than genuine remorse for the damage you have inflicted.”

The court heard Robertson communicated with 101 child victims aged between nine and 16, 89 of whom have been identified, building up trust before escalating and sexualising the conversations.

In the most serious cases he instructed the victims to film themselves engaging in sexual acts and send the videos and photos to him.

The most common persona he used was a 16-year-old bisexual girl called ‘Tash’, but he also posed as a student counsellor and other fictitious teenagers.

Robertson convinced some of the victims to comply with his demands to send him images or videos of themselves by promising them money, cigarettes, drugs or love, depending on the victim.

Robertson would share images he had already received from previous victims to help maintain his false personas and induce victims to respond with similar material.

In total Robertson sent 154 child abuse material files to 21 victims.

Police first interviewed Robertson in July 2020 after a search warrant was executed at his home.

He was released pending summons and a further search warrant in February 2021 found he had created another Instagram account to commit further offences.

Judge Syme said victim impact statements provided to the court spoke of diminished self-esteem, a lack of trust and ongoing emotional issues as a result of the offending.

Despite Robertson denying he had any intention to meet up with any of the victims, Judge Syme found the only inference to be drawn from messages where he encouraged victims to meet older men and have sex with them was that he was working towards them meeting with him.

In one instance, Robertson was working as a cleaner at a home where one of the victims lived and used three different false personas to contact her on Instagram.

In these conversations he tried to normalise the idea of having a sexual relationship with an older male and specifically mentioned her cleaner, encouraging her to flirt with him when her mother wasn’t around.

In a report by a forensic psychologist, Robertson said his actions were triggered when he told his family of sexual abuse he suffered as a child and some of them didn’t take him seriously.

The report suggested he had symptoms consistent with borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and paedophilic disorder.

The psychologist’s opinion was in the absence of treatment, Robertson presented a high risk of reoffending.

Robertson’s defence submitted there was a connection between the abuse he said he suffered as a child and his offending against children, but Judge Syme found his offending was related to his self-focused sexual gratification.

Judge Syme did accept that Robertson’s mental health disorders would make his time in custody more onerous.

She took into account Robertson’s early plea, his lack of prior criminal history and the additional hardship of custody due to COVID-19.

Robertson was sentenced to 11 years and three months in jail, with 465 days reckoned to be already served, and a non-parole period of seven years and three months.