Vic 'pervert' jailed for seeking child sex

An HIV-positive Victorian former pig farmer who planned to travel to Thailand for "extremely depraved sexual activity" with a two-year-old child has been jailed.

In early 2017, Howard John Hawke, 69, repeatedly phoned a woman in Thailand and talked about sexual activity with her toddler granddaughter.

He asked the woman to whip the child before he arrived, as he liked "to see young ones hurt".

The Kangaroo Flat man had two years earlier made a video of the woman's 16-year-old daughter in Thailand, in which he was shown whipping the naked, bound and screaming teenager who was wearing a dog collar.

Hawke pleaded guilty to a raft of sex offences including possessing, producing and transmitting child abuse material, planning sexual activity with a child outside Australia, encouraging another person to engage in sexual activity with a child, procuring a child for sexual activity and indecent assault.

However, he also argued his numerous phone calls to the Thai woman were mere phone sex "fantasy" and that he was just "a bit of a pervert".

On Thursday in the County Court of Victoria, Judge Trevor Wraight said although Hawke may have been sexually gratified by the conversations they were not "mere fantasy".

"They involved real people and involved a child you had already abused and her own daughter," Judge Wraight said.

Hawke had transmitted three payments of $60 to the grandmother via Western Union and had also asked her to procure an eight-year-old child.

"The conversations are very disturbing," Judge Wraight said.

"Offences of this nature are difficult to detect and involve sexually motivated exploitation of children. Such conduct must be denounced by the court in clear terms."

Hawke made $1 million selling his West Australian piggery in 2006, which he used to fund his retirement and travel extensively throughout South East Asia.

When he was raided in March 2017 police found scores of child pornography images and videos on his electronic devices, including some in the most extreme category.

His arrest also came just months after he had sexually assaulted an intellectually-disabled 23-year-old woman.

Judge Wraight added Hawke had not shown any genuine remorse over and above his guilty plea.

He was jailed for 10 years and three months, with a non-parole period of seven-and-a-half years.

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