Police & Court
Shepparton Instagram paedophile sent and received hundreds of child abuse images
A Shepparton cleaner who used social media to try to obtain child abuse material from about 100 children told police his “curiosity turned into an addiction”.
A plea hearing at Melbourne County Court heard Andrew Malcolm Robertson, 49, used personas on Instagram — most commonly a teenage girl called ‘Tash’ — to convince victims to create and send him sexual images and videos of themselves.
Robertson pleaded guilty to 46 charges on May 31, over the offending between October 2018 and February 2021 with children aged mostly between 11 and 14, but as young as nine.
Of the victims, 99 were girls and two were boys.
Prosecutor Peter Botros told the court Robertson followed a similar pattern with each victim, building up trust before escalating the conversation to sharing sexualised images — often obtained from other victims — and asking them to send similar material of themselves.
He said Robertson’s conduct was premeditated and calculated, obtaining child abuse material from 20 of the 101 victims and causing nine victims to film and send him explicit videos of themselves.
Mr Botros provided five victim impact statements to the court and said several “refer to confusion and feeling it’s their fault”.
“Clearly they have fallen victim to a sophisticated offender – he is the only person to blame,” Mr Botros said.
One victim said Robertson “did teach me one good lesson, and that is not all adults are safe”.
Police executed a search warrant on July 3, 2020, at Robertson’s Shepparton home after a 13-year-old girl reported to police she’d had a conversation with a person on Facebook in 2018, where he requested and received nude images from her.
The phone number linked to the Facebook account was in the name of Robertson and when his phone was located it had 105 images and 79 videos of child abuse material from victims.
Andrew Malcolm Robertson is charged with:
1x Use a carriage service to cause child pornography material to be transmitted to self
7x Use a carriage service to solicit child abuse material
1x Use a carriage service to transmit child abuse material
2x Use a carriage service to groom a person under 16 years of age
6x Use a carriage service to procure a person under 16 years of age
19x Use a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to self
9x Sexual penetration of a child under 16 years of age
1x Possess or control child abuse material accessed or obtained using a carriage service
In an interview with police, he told them he had been abused when he was 11 and was “still fighting (his) own demon”.
He told them he was trying to work out how a teenager thinks and “slowly developed an addiction to lewd pics”.
Police conducted a second search of Robertson’s home on February 26, 2021, and found a mobile phone he had used to commit further offending with the day before.
Robertson’s defence barrister Bridie Kelly said Robertson’s experience in prison would be more burdensome due to mental health issues detailed by a treating psychiatrist, who said he presented with post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Meanwhile a psychologist had identified Robertson as meeting the criteria for paedophilic disorder, major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder.
Ms Kelly referred to a statement in the report, that Robertson’s “deviant sexual interests seem to emanate from his own experience of sexual abuse” and said those interests were an underlying feature of paedophilic disorder.
Ms Kelly said he had no relevant prior history and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Ms Kelly and prosecutor Mr Botros disagreed over whether Robertson attempted to make physical contact with victims and the extent to which he had expressed remorse for what he had done.
Robertson is expected to be sentenced in July.
• GV Centre Against Sexual Assault provides free and confidential counselling, information, advocacy and support to people who have been affected by sexual assault. Call 1800 112 343 or visit gvcasa.com.au