'Child's worst nightmare': Aussie sex tourist jailed for 40 years
An Adelaide sex tourist branded "a child's worst nightmare" for his abuse of 11 babies and children has been jailed for more than 40 years.
Ruecha Tokputza, 31, groomed children for sex in Australia and Thailand, filmed their abuse and shared it online.
Prosecutors have said his crimes are the most serious case of sex offending in Australia, and District Court Judge Liesl Chapman on Friday called him a predator whose actions were depraved.
She sentenced him to 40 years, three months behind bars, with a non-parole period of 28 years, after he pleaded guilty to 50 charges committed between the years of 2011 and 2018.
"You are a child's worst nightmare, you are every parent's horror, you are a menace to the community," she said.
"Unfortunately there are many like you out there, fortunately you have been caught."
The majority of Tokputza's victims lived in Thailand.
Judge Chapman said the youngest was just 15 months old, and Tokputza removed one child's nappy and abused another child who was asleep.
She said Tokputza believed he was helping the children by "showering them with love, care and attention".
"You said you knew what you did was wrong because they were underage, but you never saw yourself as hurting them," she said.
"You felt you took care of them and they loved you back."
In addition to the sex offences, Tokputza was caught with 12,500 images and 650 videos of child exploitation he had downloaded.
He also had 415 images and 251 pornographic videos that captured his own crimes taking place.
Judge Chapman said the material was proof that child pornography was "not a victimless crime".
She said a psychologist had found Tokputza met the full criteria for a paedophilic disorder and was at a medium to high risk of sexual reoffending.
He will not be eligible for parole until he is in his late 50s.
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