Disgraced Australian children’s book author Craig Silvey has pleaded guilty to two child exploitation offences, and had his bail continued ahead of sentencing.
The far-left writer, 43, whose books feature “transgender” teenager characters and anti-racist themes, faced Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday to face four charges, which were laid in January and March.
Silvey pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material, while one count of possessing and one count of producing child exploitation material were dropped following a submission to the prosecution.
“Guilty, your honour,” Silvey told Magistrate Thomas Hall when asked how he would be pleading to the remaining two charges, The West Australian reported.
The father-of-three will appear in court again in July for a sentence mention, and his bail was continued with unchanged conditions.
Police allegedly at an earlier court appearance that Silvey was communicating with other child exploitation material offenders on an adult website when police raided his home in Fremantle.
Silvey previously had his bail conditions altered to allow him to report to police twice a week instead of three times, and to relax internet usage restrictions, ABC News reported in February.
He was initially only allowed to go online or banking, medical, employment and legal purposes, but his lawyer successfully applied for him to be able to access social media to “sanitise” his profiles by deleting comments.
Silvey’s books include Honeybee, which is written from the perspective of a “transgender” 14-year-old, and were pulled from public schools by WA Education Minister Sabine Winton after the charges were laid.
He also campaigned for the Voice to Parliament, and has used his platform as an award-winning author to promote drag queens reading to children on his social media pages.
One of his books, Jasper Jones, was turned into a film starring Toni Collette, and his won awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards Book the Year in 2010, Dymocks Book of the Year in 2020 and Book of the Year for Younger Australians in 2023.
Header image: Left, Craig Silvey arriving at court ahead of an earlier appearance (ABC News). Right, Silvey promoting “transgenderism” (Facebook).
