Award-winning young adult novelist Craig Silvey was jailed on Monday for seven months after pleading guilty to distributing and possessing child exploitation material.
The 44-year-old was found with numerous sexually explicit photos and videos of children and adults on his laptop and mobile phone when police raided his Fremantle home, the District Court of Western Australia heard.
Silvey, a father of three, also engaged in an online conversation with another user on a pornography website, where his handle was Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.
In the chat, Silvey described himself as a "Fremantle guy" before telling the user "you sound amazing ... we have very similar interests, would love to chat more; do you have Signal or Session?"
The pair moved to an encrypted messaging app, where he said he was "extremely open-minded and obsessed with taboos" and preferred boys aged five-plus before adding that "eight was the perfect age".
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"I want to make out with little ones," the author said in one message.
"I haven't had any experience, I'm sad to say.
Silvey, who has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the International Dublin Literary Award, also wrote he was "drooling" over a sexually explicit photo of a naked man and boy together.
Prosecutor Daniel Harrop said a generation of children, particularly vulnerable children grappling with questions of gender identity and sexuality, had found safety in Silvey's books and his offending had shattered it.
Judge Hayley Cormann said it was very serious and very disturbing offending.
"This offending involves children, and it is destructive, and it is devastating," she said.
"Your communication was open, it was assertive, and it was unmistakable.
"You did this as a means to engage with others, and ultimately as a means to sexually satisfy yourself as part of your fantasies."
Silvey's lawyer claimed the writer didn't have a sexual interest in children and his behaviour was an escape from the pressures of his life.
But Judge Cormann rejected this, saying his crimes were repulsive and degrading and the consequences of his abuse would have a long-lasting impact on his victims.
"You acknowledge you have devastated and betrayed the trust of thousands of people, and you have let an entire community down," she said.
"For the victims of this type of offending, it is real, and they are traumatised."
The bestselling author pleaded guilty in January. He is best known for his 2009 coming‑of‑age novel Jasper Jones, considered a modern Australian classic and adapted into a feature film and several stage productions.
He has also been widely recognised for other books, including Rhubarb and Honeybee — which won the Australian Indie Book Award in 2021 — and the children's novel Runt, which was also made into a film.
Publishers Allen & Unwin and Fremantle Press, which released Rhubarb, stopped promoting his books after Silvey was charged and most of his titles were removed from reading lists across the country.
Two charges of producing and possessing further child exploitation material were dropped in May.
Silvey was made eligible for parole.
