Phillip John Ryan: Geraldton man pleads guilty to child sex assaults

A 70-year-old Geraldton man is facing jail time after pleading guilty to almost 60 charges related to online child exploitation. Phillip John Ryan appeared in Geraldton Magistrates Court on Thursday on 169 charges brought by WA’s joint anti-child-exploitation team. The court was told the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had discontinued 111 charges and Ryan would plead guilty to the remaining 58. These include 20 counts of procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside Australia, 20 counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child outside Australia, four counts of soliciting child pornography material, five counts of accessing child pornography material, and one count of possessing child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service. MORE NEWS Ryan is in custody at Casuarina Prison and will be sentenced in the District Court on February 9. He was arrested in September 2020 by WA JACET, which comprises Australian Federal Police and WA Police officers. Ryan was first identified from financial data collected during a child protection investigation in South Australia. It is alleged officers last year found child abuse material on two devices and Skype chat records allegedly consistent with the procurement of children from “live-distance child abuse”. Pre-sentence and psychological reports will be prepared before sentencing. Some charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years jail.