In Short

The overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse is carried out by someone the child already knows and trusts, not a stranger. Predators are often described as people everyone liked and who were always great with kids.

Released sex offenders in NSW are not deliberately sent to regional areas, but the public cannot access the Sex Offender Register. Local police know who is in your community, but residents are not officially notified when a registered offender moves in.

Children who know their body belongs to them, who know they can always tell a trusted adult without getting in trouble, and who know there are no secrets between a child and an adult that must be kept from parents are significantly safer. Watch for sudden secrecy around devices, unexplained gifts, withdrawal from family, or discomfort around a particular adult.

Could a Predator Be Living in Your Neighbourhood? What Every Regional Parent Needs to Know

The arrests in Hay, Tocumwal, Deniliquin and Leeton over the past few months have rattled communities right across our region. People are asking questions that are entirely reasonable. How do you know if someone near you poses a risk to children? Can you actually spot a predator? And here is the question that comes up constantly in community conversations: do authorities deliberately send convicted child sex offenders to live in regional and rural areas after they get out of prison?

This article answers all of those questions as plainly as possible, because the families in our communities deserve straight answers, not vague reassurances.

The hardest truth first: predators almost never look the part.

This is the thing that makes child sexual abuse so devastating and so difficult for communities to reckon with. There is no look. There is no type. The cases uncovered in our own region in recent months involved people who were living as apparently normal members of their communities, with homes, vehicles, routines and in at least one case a position of trust working with children. When former Broken Hill teacher Thomas McKeown was charged in September 2024 with 34 counts of alleged aggravated sexual touching of children, the alleged offences were said to have taken place within a school, in an environment where he had the complete trust of parents, students and colleagues.

This is not unusual. Research consistently shows that the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse is carried out by someone the child already knows and trusts. The stranger lurking at the park is the rare exception, not the rule. The person to worry about is far more likely to be a family friend, a neighbour, a coach, a teacher, a relative or a person in a trusted volunteer role. They are often described, after the fact, as someone everyone liked. Someone you would never have suspected. Someone who was always so good with kids.

That last phrase, that someone was always so good with kids, is actually one of the things worth paying attention to. Not because being good with children is suspicious in itself, but because predators are frequently and deliberately good with children. Being warm, funny, generous and attentive toward children is how grooming works. It is the means by which access and trust are established.

What grooming actually looks like

Grooming is the process by which someone seeking to abuse a child gains the trust of the child and, critically, the trust of the adults around that child. It can happen over weeks, months or even years. It is patient, calculated and designed specifically to lower the defences of everyone involved.

An adult who is grooming a child will typically single that child out for special attention. They might offer gifts, money, gaming credits, treats or privileges. They create a sense of being understood and valued in the child, often by listening carefully to what the child finds exciting or difficult. They try to create situations where they are alone with the child. They will gradually introduce conversations about bodies, relationships or sex in ways that seem casual or educational, testing how the child responds and whether they will tell anyone. They will often tell the child that their relationship is special, that adults would not understand it, and that it needs to stay secret.

At the same time, the groomer is working on the adults. They position themselves as helpful and trustworthy. They offer to babysit, to drive the kids to sport, to help out. They make themselves useful and likeable to parents and carers so that those adults feel comfortable leaving them alone with children. By the time abuse begins, the groundwork has been so thoroughly laid that the child often does not fully understand what is happening, does not believe they will be believed, and does not know how to seek help.

Online grooming follows the same pattern, just across a screen. A person targeting a child online will often start by engaging them around their interests, gaming, music, content creators they follow, sport. They build rapport. They gradually shift the conversation toward personal topics and then toward sexual topics. They may send the child images. They will almost always tell the child to keep the conversation private. They may offer gifts in the real world or in-game rewards. They will try to shift the conversation to platforms that are harder to monitor, like private messaging apps or encrypted services.

Warning signs in a child's behaviour

Because groomers are so skilled at concealment, the signs that something is wrong with a child are often subtle and easy to explain away. Taken individually, any one of the following could have an innocent cause. Taken together, or when they appear suddenly, they deserve attention.

A child who becomes secretive about their phone, tablet or computer in a way they were not before. A child who quickly closes screens or apps when an adult enters the room. A child who becomes distressed, anxious or angry when their device is taken away or their internet access is limited. A child who seems to have money, gifts or things they cannot explain. A child who withdraws from family and friends and becomes more isolated. A child who starts using sexual language or referencing sexual topics that seem beyond their age. A child who seems nervous, fearful or uncomfortable around a particular adult, or conversely who seems unusually attached to an adult in a way that feels off. A child who does not want to attend an activity or be around a person they previously enjoyed spending time with.

With teenagers, the signs can be different. An older child may become secretive about an online relationship, may refer to an online friend as someone no one would understand, may become defensive or angry when asked about who they are talking to, or may talk about meeting someone they have only known online.

The most important thing any parent, carer or concerned adult can do when they notice these things is to keep the door open for conversation without pressure. Children who have been groomed often feel shame, confusion or fear. They may believe they are in trouble. They may have been told explicitly that no one will believe them. A child who knows they can talk to a trusted adult without being judged is in a far safer position than one who does not.

The question everyone is asking: are released sex offenders sent to our area?

This question comes up repeatedly in rural and regional communities, and the concern behind it is legitimate. The short answer is: no, there is no program or policy that deliberately relocates convicted sex offenders to regional NSW after their release from prison. When someone is released from prison in NSW, they generally return to the community where they lived before, or have family connections, or can find housing. There is no policy directing them away from cities and toward country towns.

However, the longer answer is more complicated, and it is something regional communities have every right to understand clearly.

Under NSW law, every person convicted of a child sex offence is automatically placed on the Child Protection Register, also known as the Sex Offender Register. This is governed by the Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000. Reporting obligations begin from the date of sentencing, or from the date of release from prison, whichever comes later. A conviction for a single Class 2 offence, which includes things like sexual touching and grooming, requires the offender to report to police for a minimum of eight years. A conviction for a Class 1 offence, which includes sexual intercourse with a child and persistent sexual abuse, requires reporting for fifteen years. If a person has both a Class 1 and any other registrable offence, or commits three or more Class 2 offences, they are required to report for life.

What reporting means in practice is that the registered person must report to NSW Police within seven days of their release from prison. After that, they must report annually. They must also notify police within fourteen days of any change to their address, employment, vehicle details, internet service providers or phone numbers. If they intend to travel outside NSW for fourteen days or more, or travel overseas, they must notify police beforehand. Failure to comply carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and fines of up to $55,000.

Critically, and this is the part that many people do not realise, the register in NSW is not accessible to the public. Unlike in the United States or Western Australia, which have public-facing components to their registers, in NSW the register is held only by police and cannot be searched by members of the community. You cannot look up whether someone in your street is a registered offender. Your neighbour cannot look up whether you are. The register exists for law enforcement purposes, to allow police to monitor, track and investigate registered persons.

This means that when a registered offender moves into a regional community, that community will not be officially told. Local police will know. They will have the person's details, address and reporting history. But there is no Megan's Law style community notification system in NSW. The government's position is that public registers create risks of vigilantism and can push offenders underground, making them harder to monitor. Many child safety advocates disagree strongly with this position, and it remains a live and genuinely contested policy debate.

What this means practically for our communities is this: there may be people in our towns who are on the Child Protection Register. We do not know who they are. The police do. Those people are required to report regularly and to keep police informed of every significant detail of their lives. If they stop reporting, they face criminal charges. If they reoffend, police have their full history. The system is not perfect, but it is not nothing.

For the most serious offenders, the law goes further. Under the Crimes (Serious Sex Offenders) Act 2006, the Attorney-General can apply for a continuing detention order, which allows an offender's imprisonment to be extended beyond the original sentence if they are assessed as posing an unacceptable risk to the community. An extended supervision order can also be imposed, placing strict conditions on an offender's life after release, including where they can live, who they can associate with and what activities they can participate in. These orders are used for offenders assessed as the highest risk.

What about Working With Children checks?

Anyone convicted of a child sex offence as an adult automatically becomes a disqualified person under the Child Protection (Working With Children) Act 2012. This means they are permanently prohibited from obtaining a Working With Children clearance and cannot legally work or volunteer in any child-related role. This covers schools, sport, childcare, churches, scouts, youth groups and any other organised activity involving children. It is a lifetime disqualification.

This matters because one of the most common pathways by which predators access children is through positions of legitimate authority in child-focused organisations. The Working With Children Check is an imperfect but important barrier.

What you can do to protect the children in your life

Knowledge is the most powerful tool available to parents and carers in this environment. Children who understand body safety, who know that their body belongs to them, who know what appropriate and inappropriate touch looks like, and who know that they can always tell a trusted adult without fear of being in trouble, are significantly safer than children who have not had those conversations.

Those conversations do not need to be frightening or heavy. They can be woven into everyday life. Use correct anatomical language for body parts from the time children are young. Teach children that some parts of their body are private, that no one should touch them there, that if anyone ever does or tries to they should tell you immediately, and that they will never be in trouble for telling you. Teach them that even if someone asks them to keep a secret, they can always tell you. Make it clear that there are no secrets between a child and an adult that need to be kept from parents.

With older children and teenagers, have honest conversations about online safety. Talk about the fact that not everyone online is who they say they are. Explain grooming in age-appropriate terms. Make clear that if someone online ever makes them feel uncomfortable, asks them to keep secrets from their family, asks them to send photos, or asks to meet in person, they should come and tell you immediately and they will not be in trouble.

Be the parent your child can come to. That is the single most important thing.

At the community level, trust your instincts. If an adult's interest in a child seems disproportionate, or if a child seems uncomfortable around a person, or if you observe behaviour that does not sit right, trust that feeling. Report it. You do not need to be certain. You do not need evidence. You just need to make the call.

NSW Police Crime Stoppers can be reached on 1800 333 000 or at nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. The ACCCE, the AFP-led national unit that investigates online child sexual exploitation, accepts reports at accce.gov.au. All reports are confidential and treated seriously. If a child is in immediate danger, call 000.

A final word

The arrests in our region over recent months are confronting. They are meant to be. They are a reminder that child sexual abuse does not happen somewhere else, to someone else's children. It happens in small towns and farming communities and outback Australia, to children who are known to us, raised among us, and whose safety is the responsibility of all of us.

The predator in your community is unlikely to be the person you would pick. They are more likely to be the person you would not. Stay informed. Stay alert. Keep talking to your children. And if something does not feel right, say something. Every investigation that has uncovered abuse in this region has depended, at some point, on someone deciding to make a call.

Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 | nsw.crimestoppers.com.au

Report online child exploitation: accce.gov.au

Emergency: 000

Kids Helpline (for children and young people): 1800 55 1800

Blue Knot Foundation (adult survivors of childhood trauma): 1300 657 380