Gay couple lose son over child sex fears
Gay couple lose son over child sex fears
February 9, 2012
David Marr
AN AUSTRALIAN gay couple have had their six-year-old son taken from them by child protection authorities in Los Angeles while the FBI and Queensland Police investigate allegations that they are members of an international paedophile ring. The men, who insist on their innocence, have told the Herald: "It looks really bad."
The child was taken last October, the day after the couple's house in Cairns was searched by Queensland police of Task Force Argos, which works with national and international law enforcement agencies on child protection cases. A spokesman for the Queensland police confirmed the matter is under investigation.
A report by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services says the FBI is also investigating allegations that one of the men "is suspected of sexually abusing [the child]. They are also suspected of exploiting [the child] through child pornography and obtaining [the child] for the sole purpose of exploitation".
Among the material in the hands of the department is a video which, according to the Los Angeles report, shows the son "watching a film of pornography with another child and speaking in an explicit sexual manner".
Another is said to show him in public with a child "speaking in a sexual and profane manner" as they partly undress.
The men, who claim to be victims of prejudice in Australia and the US against gay fathers, have been canvassing support for their cause in Cairns and in the gay press.
One of the men had the boy with a surrogate Russian mother in 2005.
After Australia refused the child a visa, the three lived abroad until adoption and other formalities were completed in the US. Since moving back to Australia, both the child and his father have become Australian citizens.
The men blame their predicament on innocent visits to three men in the US, New Zealand and Germany who, to their complete surprise, turned out to be collectors and producers of child pornography. All three were arrested last year.
The key figure was a lawyer, Edward de Sear, 64, an old friend of the boy's father who was arrested in New Jersey and charged with distributing child pornography on the internet. Another was a New Zealander the men met through Mr de Sear. He came to Cairns. They also took the boy on a visit to him in Wellington where they allege he made, without their knowledge, the video of the boys undressing.
The third was a German met through the New Zealander. The two men took the boy to him in October 2010 because, they say, he knew of some interesting castles. They travelled together. The man was one of a number of alleged child pornographers rounded up in big raids in southern Germany in August last year.
Asked to explain their serial contacts with child pornographers, one of the men told the Herald: "These are three people out of 20 people we know. You never know who you pick. You never know who you're with. You never even know if the person you're married with is something as well. We would never hurt our child."
The men and the boy were travelling again last October. They took with them to America a "roommate and friend" who lives with them in Cairns. It is understood this third man works with children. Queensland police would not say whether he is being investigated as part of the Argos operation.
That man was driving down a Los Angeles freeway with the boy when they were pulled over by police. Some hours before, Queensland police had removed computers, digital equipment and documents from their house in Cairns. The boy was put into foster care where he has been for 3½ months as the city's Department of Children and Family Services assess his situation.
The Australian couple have declined on legal advice to discuss the allegations against them with the department's assessors. A report shortly before Christmas detailed a number of worries about the child's situation but it did not cite evidence of sexual abuse. Next week a Los Angeles court is due to begin deciding whether to remove the child permanently from the men.