An Australian man who paid Filipino children as young as nine for online sex shows would try to barter down the cost of the performances from his desperate victims.
Melbourne truck driver Brett Geoffrey Le Gassick, 43, used chatrooms to pursue 83 children in the Philippines for sex shows and explicit conversations.
He paid dozens of young girls between $20 and $35 to act out sexual instructions using webcams.
Crown prosecutor Morgan Brown said the children's participation in the offending highlighted how desperate they were.
"Instead of viewing these victims as children, they're essentially commodities," Ms Brown told the Victorian County Court on Friday.
"When negotiating these sex shows the accused barters to get a better price."
Le Gassick also attempted to pay for two under-age children to engage in a sex act with a 32-year-old, the court heard.
At times he paid for sex shows only to have the girls walk away once the money was transferred.
In 2012 he spent four months trying to recover $30 that he paid for a 22-year-old man to have sex with a 10-year-old girl, telling the man he was going to close his bank account because of the scam.
"So many poor families not getting my money anymore cos of scammers like you, I hope you feel good that you take food from all their mouths," Le Gassick wrote.
He told a 12-year-old girl who took money but didn't perform: "You bad to me. Keep do that you go to jail."
He also used screen shots of the sex performances to produce child pornography.
When police raided his Brunswick home in January they found 567 child porn images and 20 videos, the court heard.
Defence barrister Steve Preece said Le Gassick knew what he was doing was wrong but told himself the fact he was "helping" the children by paying them was a "silver lining".
He said Le Gassick had initially engaged with online chat groups to find a partner.
"He lives a very lonely life," Mr Preece said.
Le Gassick on Friday pleaded guilty to 25 offences relating to causing and procuring a child for sexual activity.
Judge Elizabeth Gaynor said if Le Gassick had been sent to a sex offender program after being jailed in 2007 for possessing child porn it might have made a difference.
"Inaccessibility of appropriate programs is really a worry," Judge Gaynor said.
"You're so often dealing with people whose capacity to be deterred by a jail sentence simply isn't there."
Le Gassick will be sentenced next week.
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