Travis Lee Coad: Military veteran jailed for 18 months after undercover abuse material case ends in ocean

An undercover officer posing as a divorced woman while investigating a child abuse case led detectives to a bizarre arrest in which a man tried to escape police by jumping into the ocean near Rockingham. Military veteran Travis Lee Coad was jailed for 18 months for a range of offences, including possessing child abuse material, following his arrest this year. In the lead-up to the moment he was whisked away in handcuffs, police started investigating the 44-year-old’s disturbing online activity, which saw him transmit abuse material to a woman he met on a dating site. Those details and some of the investigative tactics used by police were revealed during his sentencing in the Perth District Court earlier this month. WARNING: CONFRONTING DETAILS The court was told Mr Coad was having “video sex” with a woman he matched with on a dating site between August last year and March. During three of those video calls, Mr Coad panned his mobile phone camera to his laptop, which was displaying child exploitation material. After the woman stopped speaking to him, he turned his attention to a divorced woman with children he met online. What Mr Coad didn’t know was that his new match was an undercover police officer. Judge Darren Renton said Mr Coad sent sexually explicit messages to the officer which alluded to “the fact you had a sexual interest in young girls”. On March 17, Mr Coad sent a message to the officer stating he wanted to see them perform a sexual act on a baby or toddler. And ten days later, Mr Coad arranged to meet the officer in Shoalwater. Instead of meeting a divorced woman, he met a detective who placed him under arrest for producing child abuse material. But Mr Coad denied that offending, before pulling away from the detective — starting a chase which ended after he jumped from a jetty and into the ocean. Judge Renton told Mr Coad that he was “pursued by police and directed by an officer not to throw the mobile phone that you’d taken out of your pocket into the water”. “You ignored that instruction, jumped into the ocean, and threw your phone as far as you could. “Ultimately, it could not be recovered. “You were later apprehended by police, and they conducted a search of your home. They located there the laptop, which contained the 49 images.” Judge Renton said three of those images were classed as the most disturbed type of child abuse material. The children being abused in the images were aged between two and 12. The court was told Mr Coad had been diagnosed with PTSD following his work in the Australian Army between 2002 and 2007, which included deployments overseas. He had a troubled upbringing and was receiving treatment for his offending, which he was engaging with positively. Mr Coad was charged with five offences, which included one count of escaping from lawful custody, wilfully destroy evidence and three abuse material offences. One of the abuse material charges related to the transmission of child abuse during three video calls with the woman he met online. He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and will be eligible for parole after serving nine months behind bars.