An Australian cop who engaged in vile online chats with teenage girls still has not told his wife of nine months about his sexual fantasies involving children and animals.
James Anthony Gwynne has pleaded guilty to sending explicit messages referencing incest and bestiality to adult and underage users of the encrypted social media app Whisper.
Gwynne – who married in October last year – contacted women he had never met to share his sick fantasies, which included impregnating his own daughters.
The 30-year-old, who does not actually have children, bragged about being a policeman and told one female Whisper user ‘my secret is that my fantasies are illegal’.
An Australian cop who engaged in vile online chats with teenage girls still has not told his wife of nine months about his sexual fantasies involving children and animals. James Anthony Gwynne is pictured outside Campbelltown District Court on Tuesday
He has admitted trying to groom one 15-year-old American girl by forwarding her graphic content including a picture of his genitals taken next to his police shirt.
Most of the messages, which were sent between February and April last year when he was based at Waverley police station in Sydney’s east, are too explicit to publish.
In the earliest recorded conversation with another Whisper user, Gwynne asked, ‘What did you do that crossed a line?’ and then encouraged her to describe having sex with a boy when she was a babysitter.
He asked one woman, ‘Do you ever wish your dog could get you pregnant and have your own puppies?’ then said, ‘You will get no judgement from me’ followed by a smiley face emoji.
Gwynne told another woman, ‘I also have a fantasy about one day having daughters and taking their virginities and impregnating them. Sorry if that’s way too f**ked up for you.’
When a third woman asked what it was Gwynne liked about the idea of his future wife engaging in bestiality he replied, ‘Oh I just like the thought that she’s so submissive she’ll even bow to my wishes’.
In April last year James Gwynne contacted a Whisper user and asked if she would want ‘a cute Australian cop’ to get the woman and her 12-year-old daughter pregnant
Judge Tanya Smith referred to Gwynne’s most extreme and regularly used fantasy as ‘the wife, the dog, the daughters scenario’.
Gwynne, who referred to himself as ‘Daddy’ in some of the chats, wiped away tears as he gave evidence at his sentencing hearing at Campbelltown District Court on Tuesday.
The court heard his parents and two brothers were present to offer their support but his wife did not attend the hearing.
Gwynne said he had not told his family or friends the full nature of his crimes but he ‘figured everything would come up’ during his sentencing.
When Judge Smith asked, ‘Is that one of the reasons why your wife’s not here today?’, Gwynne responded, ‘Yes, Your Honour.’
Gwynne, who has been working as a traffic controller while he is suspended from the NSW Police Force, told the court he had gained insight into his offending by talking to a psychologist.
‘It opened me up to myself,’ he said. ‘My behaviour and my conduct has obviously been quite questionable.’
James Anthony Gwynne has pleaded guilty to sending explicit messages referencing incest and bestiality to adult and underage users of the encrypted social media app Whisper. He is pictured outside court with his parents
When one teenager said she did not want to show Gwynne her face because ‘I’m still a minor after all’, he asked, ‘What if I told you that I do a job that makes it even worse for daddy?’
The court heard Gwynne’s deviant sexual fantasies led to a diagnosis of zoophilia – a sexual interest in animals – but he denied having a sexual interest in children.
He had been prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which had alleviated his depression and premature ejaculation.
‘I was down in the dumps after being charged,’ Gwynne said of the treatment. ‘It’s also helped me in the bedroom.’
Gwynne said he had nearly separated from his wife after she learnt he had been charged but they were still together and she remained supportive.
‘She was very disappointed and quite upset the day I came home and informed her,’ he told the court.
‘We spent a bit of time apart, not speaking. However as time’s progressed I felt more comfortable talking about my issues.’
Asked by his barrister Jack Tyler-Stott how he looked his brothers in the eye since his arrest, Gwynne said, ‘I don’t’.
‘I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed,’ he told the court.
Gwynne has admitted trying to groom one 15-year-old American girl by forwarding her graphic content including a picture of his genitals taken next to his police shirt.
Gwynne had not thought about the consequences of his actions at the time he engaged in the online discussions but now understood the extent of his wrongdoing.
‘In the moment I was just looking for cheap sexual gratification,’ he said. ‘I felt in those mornings I was engaging in these chats I was just looking for a cheap way to get my rocks off.
‘I was looking for a cheap w**k to put it basically.’
Gwynne acknowledged he had known it was wrong to engage in such conversations with a person under 16 but did not understand it was an offence to discuss his deviant sexual fantasies.
‘I knew that it was morally wrong,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know it was unlawful.’
Gwynne said he had been warned about breaching the NSW Police Force social media policy in 2019 and 2021 after posting a Tinder profile of himself in full uniform.
He said revealing himself as a policeman online had mostly been ‘attention seeking’ but he had also used his job to make the women and girls feel safe.
In April last year officers from the US Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force in Minnesota conducted a covert operation using the assumed online identity (AOI) of a 15-year-old girl
Despite asking one 15-year-old to send him pictures of her crotch, Gwynne said he had never committed offences against children ‘in real life’.
He now recognised the impact sharing his fantasies with children could have had, particularly as he used his status as a police officer to gain their trust.
‘It opens them up to believe that police are not trustworthy people,’ Gwynne told the court.
Gwynne said he could not access a story about his crimes in the Daily Telegraph because it was behind a paywall but read one in Daily Mail Australia.
‘I was able to read the entirety of that and I felt disgusted,’ he said. ‘I felt that my worth as a human was no longer there.’
Gwynne, who is trying to stay out of prison, was asked what he feared about going into custody.
‘That I might become a target to the other inmates,’ he said.
‘Given the nature of my offending and the fact I was a police officer may make me more of a target than the general population.’
Gwynne said he if felt the urge to offend again he would talk to his wife.
‘I believe that I can rehabilitated,’ he said.
‘I would like to apologise to my colleagues and my family and my wife. That I’ve disgraced them through my actions.
‘And that given a suspended sentence I’ll do what I can to become a functioning member of society again.’
Judge Smith said she would sentence Gwynne in October.
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