A police officer will have to wait to learn his fate after ‘highly depraved’ messages he sent about his fantasies of bestiality and incest.
James Anthony Gwynne appeared in the Campbelltown District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to grooming a child for sex and using a carriage service to send and receive child abuse material.
The court heard the 31-year-old used encrypted messaging platform Whisper to message multiple adult and minor users about his twisted fantasies of bestiality and incest.
Gwynne sent the vile messages, many of which are too graphic to describe in detail, between February and April last year while he was stationed at Waverley police station in Sydney’s east.
Police officer James Gwynne has pleaded guilty to grooming a child for sex and distributing child pornography material.
“My secret is that my fantasies are illegal,” he told one user.
“As in, I would go to jail.”
In his messages, Gwynne repeatedly revealed his sexual fantasies about dogs and his desire to have daughters he could impregnate.
He bragged about being a police officer and rudely told a 17-year-old girl, “Daddy’s a police officer.”
“Police officer and a pervert lol,” she replied.
Gwynne called a 17-year-old girl his “breeding toy” in coded messages. Image: Text model.
On Friday, Gwynne was accompanied by his parents. The court was told his wife could not attend but upheld her support.
Although the 31-year-old was due to be sentenced on Friday afternoon, Judge Tanya Smith said a number of issues needed to be resolved first.
She cited concerns over the specification of one of the charges, which had been “rolled up” to include the use of a carriage service to obtain and send child sexual abuse material.
Judge Smith said she was trying to determine which conduct fell under which part of the charge, and whether the combination was legal.
“If I determine that it is not allowed under the law, then there should be an election on one charge or the other,” she said.
He bragged about his job and shared photos of his uniform. Image: Text model.
If that were the case, Attorney General David Jordan said making a choice could “relax” Gwynne’s guilty plea and “leave uncharged conduct that has yet to be charged.”
The judge also raised discrepancies between the definition of a child under state and commonwealth law as a factor to consider in sentencing.
She noted that the case “raises a lot of questions” and explained that she went to great lengths to review each charge rather than approaching Gwynne’s offenses on a “holistic basis.”
“Some of the topics discussed are clearly very depraved, but… my job is to convict on an individual charge before me and what conduct it involves,” Judge Smith said.
“I’m not here to condemn anyone in terms of having beliefs or fantasies of a certain type.”
Judge Smith adjourned the case for a week to allow the parties to make submissions on the issues raised.
COURT – GWYNNE
If her concerns are adequately addressed, the court will hear that Gwynne will likely be sentenced before the end of the year.
The 31-year-old looked dejected and tried to avoid the media as he left the Campbelltown courthouse with his parents.
On Friday, NSW Police confirmed Gwynne resigned from the force on August 23, more than six months after pleading guilty.
He was arrested after investigators from the Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force posed as a fictional 15-year-old American girl in Whisper.
Gwynne struck up a conversation with the ‘teenager’ in April 2022, asking if she wanted to ‘sit on a cute Australian police officer’s face’.
The ‘teenager’ made it clear she was only 15 years old before the officer sent her a photo of his erect penis next to his NSW Police uniform shirt.
Days later, police searched Gwynne’s home and Waverley police station and found several items he was wearing in the images sent to the ‘teenager’.
The disgraced police officer pleaded guilty to grooming a child outside Australia to facilitate sexual activity.
He also admitted using a carriage service to obtain child abuse material, three charges of using a carriage service to send child abuse material and using the service to offend.