A senior manager at ACT Health who admitted very serious child sex abuse crimes was allowed to keep working after his arrest.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bradley John Burch pleaded guilty to having child pornography on his phone and also sending child pornography to others.
But he continued to work for ACT Health for more than six months after his home was raided on October 10 last year.
As an employee, he is alleged to have continued participating in internal ACT Health chat-rooms where parents exchanged pictures of their children, not knowing of the child pornography charges against their colleague in the group.
Burch appeared in court on March 26 this year and admitted to both possessing child abuse material and sending child pornography.
On the first charge, Chief Justice Helen Murrell sentenced him to "a good behaviour order for a period of two years with a condition to complete 100 hours of community service work within 12 months".
He awaits sentencing on the second, more serious, charge. The maximum sentence is 15 years in prison.
The police evidence to the court was that Burch had images of men having sex with children as young as three.
He also had online chats with what appeared to be pre-pubescent children. In these chats, he sometimes called himself "daddy" and indicated that he had sex with the child at the other end.
It is not clear if these chats really were with children or with adults pretending to be children.
In transcripts of these online chats obtained by the police, a child appears to have been told that food would be her reward if she committed sexual acts. She said she hadn't eaten for three days.
There is understood to be a burning anger among his former colleagues.
Burch was in a senior position as ACT Health's executive branch manager, Strategic Infrastructure Branch. His colleagues fear his predatory activities were able to continue under their noses.
The official policy under the "reportable conduct scheme" is that an allegation of child abuse has to be reported to the ACT ombudsman within 30 days.
In other words, if one part of the ACT administration - the police, for example - knows of a serious allegation against an employee, the ACT ombudsman should be told. The ombudsman then decides what action should be taken to protect children, including those of other employees.
The Canberra Times asked for information from ACT Policing, the ombudsman and ACT Health.
The ombudsman's office said: "Given the sensitive nature of these types of matters, we are unable to provide information on individual allegations."
ACT Health replied: "This individual is no longer an employee of the ACT Health Directorate. The directorate has no further comment."
The spokesperson added that employees themselves should "report details of criminal charges laid against them".
ACT Policing said it didn't comment on matters before the court. A spokesperson said it abided by the "mandatory reporting requirements when investigating allegations relating to children".
But it also had to act within privacy and human rights law.
"Any disclosure of charges by ACT Policing to a third party outside the investigation would be a breach of privacy on the individual," the spokesperson said.
When Burch was arrested in Fyshwick, the police found a computer and phone with still and video images of "pre-pubescent" girls and boys engaged in sexual acts with adult men and women.
Police evidence was presented to the court that "on the defendant's mobile phone, police located sexualised conversations relating to children in messaging applications on the device".
There are conversations which appear to be with young children. One talks of giving a child the sleeping drug, Benadryl, before sex.
The prosecution evidence stated:
- "1. The Accused is 35 years old and was 34 years old at the time of the alleged offending.
- 2. The Accused is employed as a Director with ACT Health.
- 3. The Accused is not criminally recorded.
- 4. The Accused is married and has no children."
Burch was caught after the American National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children noticed a user on Tumblr who went by the pseudonym, "sirelocutus69". Tumblr is a platform which allows people to exchange messages, videos and still images without disclosing their true identity.
The Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organisation which says its "mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimisation".
It passed the information about the username to the Australian Federal Police in Canberra, who then set about finding out who owned the computers and phones, which were used by "sirelocutus69".
The AFP monitored his online activity and finally identified the computers he was using.
The evidence presented to court was: "At the relevant period, this IP addresses (sic) was allocated to Bradley John BURCH, the defendant now before the Court. Further investigation revealed the defendant and his wife were residing in Fyshwick in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at the business premises of his wife."
In one exchange, apparently with another paedophile, Burch says: "Haven't been caught yet, but would be put away for a long time if I was."
He is to be sentenced in July.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
