Guyra man released on bond for child abuse offences

The Guyra man, who was arrested in April 2022, has been released on a bond
31st May 2023

A Guyra man has been released on a bond for child abuse offences. Wayne Michael Annetts was handed his sentence last week in Tamworth District Court by Judge Andrew Coleman for possessing and accessing the child exploitation material.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) homed in on the 39-year-old after a tip-off last year. The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and New Zealand police identified child abuse material on two online storage accounts.
They reported the findings to the AFP who launched an investigation and linked the accounts to Annetts.
In April 2022, he was arrested when members of the AFP’s Eastern Command Child Protection Operations team executed a search warrant at his Guyra home, seizing two devices that were found to contain child abuse material.
The man pleaded guilty in Tamworth Local Court on 8 February 2023 to possessing or controlling child abuse material using a carriage service; and using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
He was sentenced last week to two years and ten months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of one year and one month. His sentence was backdated to 12 May 2023, but he was released on 22 May to serve his sentence on strict conditions in the community. He is also banned from travelling interstate or overseas without permission of authorities.
The AFP said the charges should serve as a warning that police are watching, no matter where you live.
Detective Acting Sergeant Adam Barcham said the case was another example of the AFP working hand in hand with its overseas counterparts to home in on those sharing or possessing child exploitation material.
“Children are not commodities to be used for the gratification of sexual predators,” he said.
“The AFP will continue to work tirelessly to protect children and prosecute those who seek to exploit them.”