HE was a child star, but all for the wrong reasons.
He made his debut at just 22 months old – not for a toy store commercial or even a family PG film. It was for global hardcore porn syndication.
He is allegedly filmed being sexually abused by his “adoptive parents” and at least eight other pedophiles in Australia, France, Germany and the United States.
His horrifying introduction to the insidious world of pedophilia dates back to 2005, when his Russian mother sold him for $8,000 to a member of Boy Lovers – a sophisticated global network of men whose sexual preference is boys aged six Eight years.
The boy was “adopted” by American Mark J Newton who lived in Brisbane and Cairns with his Australian boyfriend, Peter Truong.
The extent of the abuse was such that the boy, who will be called Adam for legal reasons, grew up believing that abuse and exploitation were a natural part of his daily existence.
Newton even taught Adam how to deny any inappropriate activity if questioned by investigators.
He was so indoctrinated that, when questioned by a line of American experts, Adam did not reveal the serious sexual abuse he had suffered at the hands of his “parents” and the Boy Lovers network.
Queensland Police’s Argos Task Force, which targets pedophiles, is also concerned the same techniques may have been used on several other children who came into contact with the men.
Newton and Truong’s secret lives began to unravel in a New Zealand home in August 2011 when a fan of their work and fellow sex offender was arrested with computer drives containing “happy snaps” of Adam and his parents amid images of child exploitation.
To the untrained eye, the images depicted a family outing, but to a network of seasoned detectives, the photos raised serious concerns.
“By examining the discs, they located certain images – although they were not likely to constitute a criminal offense, to the trained eye, and there is a network of investigators around the world who do this on a daily basis. “The images did not look like what you would see as a traditional family photo,” said Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, head of Queensland Police’s Argos task force, which targets pedophilia.
“The photos were sort of modeling photos, it looked fake to us,” Inspector Rouse said in an exclusive interview with Seven News.
However, the detectives’ intuition was not enough to obtain a search warrant, but it was enough for Argos and the New Zealand Ministry of Internal Affairs to launch an investigation.
Argos conducted background checks and used its specialized victim identification staff to identify the people in the photos and locate the boy. At the same time, New Zealand authorities examined chat logs and information on their offenders’ hard drives.
“The information and texts contained in these newspapers were the catalyst for obtaining a search warrant. The text clearly indicated communication between the suspects (Truong and Newton) and other child sex offenders when the child was being sexually abused and the material was broadcast live in some cases to these other offenders,” the prosecutor said. Inspector Rouse.
Further checks revealed that Truong and Newton had traveled extensively and at that time had left Queensland for the United States.
Argos carried out several raids in Queensland, including at the Cairns men’s home, where they discovered a sophisticated surveillance camera system.
Concerned for Adam’s welfare, Queensland police alerted their American counterparts who searched the men’s home in Los Angeles, took them into custody and took Adam into custody in October 2011.
“The information we gave them at the time amounted to what you would call smoke, but not a gun. We had our concerns, the chat logs and the material, but it wasn’t enough for US authorities to actually pursue the two men. However, we just had to ensure that the young boy was taken care of…” he said.
Police raids in north Queensland uncovered a large volume of documents, but they were encrypted and Argos investigators did not have the passwords needed to unlock them.
Using the material that was not encrypted, the victim identification team spent months piecing together a timeline of the men’s lives.
“These two individuals carefully cataloged almost everything they did, all their travels. The young boy figured prominently in most of these documents. Everything from airports to theme parks… they documented everything that was to their detriment,” he said.
This information also helped police identify some of their associates.
“So in the background of all this work being done, we had encrypted material that we strongly suspected contained child exploitation images. We had a boy in care and both offenders were on the loose in Los Angeles protesting their innocence and the case was progressing through the (US) Family Law Court, Inspector Rouse said.
At the time, Newton and Truong claimed authorities were targeting them because of their homosexuality.
Inspector Rouse dismissed the men’s claims, saying Argos targets anyone who harms children.
“If you harm a child – no matter your gender – we will take action. Our best interest is the child, not your sexual preference.”
Through its close ties with its foreign counterparts, Argos learned that the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) was investigating the Boy Lover network.
USPIS investigator Brian Bone was alerted to the photos of Adam found on the New Zealand offender and recognized that this was the same boy who had pornographic footage and images discovered in several of their investigations.
Argos sent all the collected evidence to the United States, along with the technique used by Newton and Truong, both computer experts, to encrypt their hard drives.
The men were arrested in February last year.
Newton and Truong have previously claimed in media interviews that their son was born to a Russian surrogate mother found on the Internet.
Once U.S. authorities confronted Truong with evidence collected in parallel investigations, he provided the passwords to investigators. Newton refused to cooperate.
When the disks were unlocked, it was “blatantly obvious” to investigators that Newton and Truong had bought Adam into their lives for the sole purpose of sexually exploiting him within the Boy Lovers network.
“The evidence has indeed shown us that these two men have been intrinsically linked to child sex offenders, with a preference for young boys, for a long time and that they traveled the world and sexually exploited this young boy…” , said Inspector Rouse.
Earlier today Australian time, a US judge sentenced Newton, 42, to 40 years in prison – giving him the maximum sentence for the federal crimes of conspiracy to sexually exploit a minor and conspiracy to possess child pornography.
The Indianapolis District Court heard that Adam was made available for sex with at least eight men when he was between two and six years old.
Two other men, US residents John R Powell, 41, a Florida-based lawyer, and Jason Bettuo, a Michigan tennis coach, 36, were also charged.
US Attorney Joseph H Hogsett said that between 2010 and 2011, Newtown and Truong traveled to San Francisco to meet Powell and Bettuo who filmed themselves having sex with Adam.
Powell also visited the men’s home in Cairns around this time to do the same to Adam.
Trafficking in sexual abuse images over the Internet and the U.S. mail system kicked off the initial USPIS investigation.
“Personally…I think it’s probably the worst (pedophile) ring…if not the worst ring I’ve ever heard of,” said USPIS investigator Brian Bone.
“For over a year and across three continents, these men subjected this young child to some of the most heinous acts of exploitation this child has ever seen,” Mr. Hogsett said after the hearing.
Truong, 36, pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing on charges of conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and possession of child pornography.
Adam’s future is unknown and he is currently in the care of an American family.
Newton and Truong have previously claimed in media interviews that after several failed attempts to find a surrogate mother in the United States, their son was born to a Russian surrogate mother found on the Internet.
“We decided that we would have a child, that it was time for us to start a family. We wanted to experience the joys of fatherhood and we began our surrogacy in the United States in 2002,” Truong told the time.
“We’ve heard about a lot of scams and some people posing as so-called surrogates who are really just there to make money,” he said.
The men claimed that Mark was the biological father and that Adam’s mother handed him over to them when he was five days old.
The investigation into the men’s activities continues.
Inspector Rouse said the task force interviewed several sex offenders in Queensland and Australia who communicated with Newton and Truong.
Detectives also interviewed several Queensland children who came into contact with the two men.
“Based on the activity of these individuals - one would have to be suspicious of any child who may have been in contact with these men - I would have to think that there is a high probability of being affected in some way or d ‘another one”
“We have conducted a number of interviews with a number of children, but we have no revelations of sexual abuse,” he said.
The examination of the couple’s finances also raised questions with investigators about how the men supported their global lifestyle without any obvious means of income.
“There is no record of real money indicating that they are in any form of employment that would maintain the lifestyle that they have had and you can draw your own conclusions regarding the amount of travel what they have been on and where they have been and the purpose of this trip,” said Inspector Rouse.
Inspector Rouse said Argos encountered members of the Boy Lovers network during child sex investigations between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast several years ago.
If Troung or Newton ever return to Australian shores, Taskforce Argos will pursue them, Inspector Rouse said.