Renowned Australian novelist Craig Silvey has faced court after police caught him allegedly engaging with pedophiles online and sharing child abuse material.
The 43-year-old appeared in Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material between 7 and 9 of January.
No pleas were entered and Silvey was granted bail with conditions, and a $100,000 personal undertaking and a $100,000 surety.
Detectives executed a search warrant at Silvey's Fremantle home in Perth on Monday, when he was allegedly caught engaging with child exploitation offenders online.
"He was immediately arrested and his electronic devices were seized," a Western Australian police spokesman said.
Silvey published Honeybee in 2020 and it was the winner of the 2021 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year - Fiction. Source: AAP / Rex Martinich
His most recent novel, Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping, was published by Allen & Unwin in September. His other books include Rhubarb and Honeybee, which won the Australian Indie Book Award in 2021.
In Western Australia, child exploitation material refers to any material, including images, videos, writings, or data, that depicts or describes a person who is under 16 in a sexual context or being subjected to abuse or cruelty.
Silvey is scheduled to appear in the same court on 10 February.
Share
