Online child porn sting catches out Farmborough Heights ‘lovinggrandpa’
By SHANNON TONKIN
Sept. 30, 2014, 10:09 p.m.
He was a 62-year-old architect with a penchant for child pornography and sexual fantasies surrounding incest.
She was a 37-year-old who apparently shared the same interests.
They met on a online networking site, but soon got to exchanging their sordid pictures and fantasy stories by private chat.
It seemed like the perfect match.
Except, it wasn’t.
She was a he – an undercover police officer, posing as a female internet user in order to catch the likes of Lindsay Graeme Everingham.
Everingham first made contact with the undercover officer, part of the State Crime Command’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit, on September 9, using the online profile ‘‘lovinggrandpa’’.
The pair engaged in conversation, which was later transferred to the private chat application Yahoo Messenger.
Everingham told his confidant on September 11 that he had sexually abused his daughter and granddaughter (claims that were later found to be false), describing his apparent conduct for the woman in great detail.
He also sent her two pictures purporting to be the pair.
A week later, police raided Everingham’s Farmborough Heights home, seizing his computer for forensic examination.
During a subsequent interview with investigating officers, Everingham made several confessions including using websites to access child porn videos, making up an incest fantasy involving a daughter and granddaughter and engaging in dozens of online chats of a sexual nature surrounding children for the purpose of sexual gratification.
A forensic sweep of his computer uncovered 160 images of child abuse, of which 41 were classified in the second and third highest categories for such material.
In court on Tuesday, Judge Paul Conlon said despite the serious nature of the offences, Everingham’s conduct fell towards the lower end of the scale for these types of offences, noting the small number of images involved (compared with other such cases) and the limited audience.
A psychologist’s report said Everingham, who has been married for 40 years, was an introverted person who suffered from life-long anxiety and would often regress into fantasy worlds to cope with his normal life.
The psychologist said Everingham had gained insight into his behaviour during treatment sessions and was ashamed and embarrassed by his actions.
Judge Conlon accepted that Everingham was taking responsibility for his rehabilitation and agreed to suspend his 18-month prison sentence to allow him to continue seeking treatment.
Everingham was supported in court by his wife.
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