A cop who has admitted to sharing his twisted sexual fantasies about children and animals in online chats with strangers is still a police officer, despite facing jail time.
James Anthony Gwynne pleaded guilty in March to sending perverted messages about incest and bestiality to adult and underage users of the encrypted social media app Whisper.
A spokeswoman for the New South Wales Police Force confirmed that Gwynne, who was suspended without pay a week after his arrest last April, had still not been fired.
Police have not explained why Gwynne was not fired, but Daily Mail Australia understands his employment status will be assessed once he has been convicted.
Gwynne reached out to women he’d never met to share his sick fantasies, including getting his own daughters pregnant.
The 30-year-old, who has no children, bragged about being a police officer and told a female Whisper user ‘my secret is that my fantasies are illegal’.
An Australian officer who has admitted to sharing his twisted sexual fantasies about children and animals in online chats with strangers is still a police officer. James Anthony Gwynne is photographed in Campbelltown court on August 1
Gwynne, who worked as a traffic warden during his suspension, told a judge earlier this month that he had gained insight into his offense by talking to a psychologist.
‘It opened me up to myself,” he said. “My behavior and my conduct has obviously been rather questionable.”
Gwynne had been warned about violating the NSW Police Force’s social media policies in 2019 and 2021 after he posted a Tinder profile of himself in full uniform.
He had once hoped to join the Raptor Squad biker’s highway patrol, but that goal was postponed after he was involved in a car accident at work.
“I was quite interested in road safety and I thought I could help the community with that,” Gwynne said during his sentencing.
Gwynne used his position as a cop to gain the trust of the girls and women he spoke to online, telling a 17-year-old, “Daddy’s a cop.”
Last April, James Gwynne contacted a Whisper user and asked if she wanted “a cute Australian cop” to get the woman and her 12-year-old daughter pregnant
He has admitted trying to groom a 15-year-old American girl by sending her graphic content, including a photo of his genitals next to his police shirt.
Most of the messages, sent between February and April last year when he was stationed at Waverley Police Station in eastern Sydney, are too graphic to publish.
He asked a woman, “Do you ever wish your dog could get you pregnant and have puppies of your own?” then said, “You won’t get any judgment from me,” followed by a smiley emoji.
Gwynne told another woman, “I also have a fantasy that one day I’ll have daughters and take their virginity and get them pregnant. Sorry if that’s too crazy for you.’
When a third woman asked what Gwynne liked about the idea of his wife-to-be engaging in bestiality, he replied, “Oh, I just love the thought of her being so submissive that she’ll even bow to my wishes.”
When a teen said she didn’t want to show Gwynne her face because “I’m still underage,” he asked, “What if I told you I’m doing work that makes things worse for Dad?”
Gwynne, who got married in October, wiped away tears as he testified at his Campbelltown District Court hearing before Judge Tanya Smith.
The court heard that Gwynne’s deviant sexual fantasies led to a diagnosis of zoophilia – a sexual interest in animals – but he denied having any sexual interest in children.
Gwynne, trying to stay out of prison, was asked what he feared about being taken into custody. “That I could become a target for the other prisoners,” he said.
“Given the nature of my offense and the fact that I was a police officer, I may be more of a target than the general population.”
Gwynne hadn’t considered the consequences of his actions at the time he took part in the online discussions, but now understood the magnitude of his misdeeds.
“At that point I was just looking for cheap sexual gratification,” he said. “I felt like I was on these chats on those mornings, I was just looking for a cheap way to get my bricks off.
“I was looking for a cheap w**k to actually put it.”
Last April, agents of the US Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force in Minnesota conducted a sting operation using the assumed online identity (AOI) of a 15-year-old girl
Gwynne acknowledged that he knew it was wrong to engage in such conversations with a person under 16, but did not understand that it was an offense to discuss his deviant sexual fantasies.
“I knew it was morally wrong,” he said. “I didn’t know it was illegal.”
Gwynne said revealing himself as a police officer online had been mostly “attention-seeking” but he had also used his work to make the women and girls feel safe.
Despite asking a 15-year-old to send him pictures of her crotch, Gwynne said he’d never committed crimes against children “in real life.”
He now recognized the impact that sharing his fantasies with children could have had, especially as he used his status as a police officer to gain their trust.
“It opens them up to believe that the police are not trustworthy people,” Gwynne told the court.
Judge Smith will sentence Gwynne in October.