NSW Cop jailed over $100k robbery from sex offender's home

A police officer who was hailed a vigilante hero on social media for breaking into a convicted child sex offender’s outback home, tying him up and stealing $100,000 in cash has been jailed.

The NSW officer, whose identity is protected by court orders, knew his 78-year-old victim had a stash of cash in a safe because he searched his home over a child sex offence in 2020.

Four years later, the officer and a co-offender drove from Sydney to break into the elderly man’s home, borrowing a car, filling up jerry cans with petrol and leaving their mobile phones behind to avoid detection.

The pair burst into the man’s home on the evening of October 3, 2024, forcing him face down on the ground and tying his hands and feet.

They threatened him with further harm until the victim told them where the safe key was, allowing them to steal about $100,000.

The officer pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter and was on Friday sentenced to at least six years’ jail, with a maximum term of 10 years.

NSW District Court judge Robert Newlinds said the level of the officer’s offending was “very high”, particularly as he misused his professional knowledge to both target the victim and avoid detection.

“Use of private information gathered by the process of search warrants for anything other than proper purposes connected to the administration of justice is entirely unacceptable and must be deplored,” Judge Newlinds said.

The court heard the 2020 police search of the home resulted in the elderly man being charged and convicted of a child sex offence.

The media attention from the 2024 robbery led to the officer being celebrated as a “hero” on social media, while the victim was shunned in his small town.

“I consider the consequences to the victim to be extraordinary and over and above what might be considered usual or expected,” the judge said.

“The victim had served his time for his crime and was entitled to be left alone to live his life without being bashed and robbed by a police officer involved in investigating his crime.

“Let alone, members of the public vilifying the victim and praising the offender.”

The court was told the officer was moving from active duty to be considered for medical discharge at the time of the robbery.

The once ambitious detective’s mental state had deteriorated by 2021 after his work exposed him to traumatic incidents like homicides, child sex abuse, sexual assaults and fatal car crashes.

In late 2023, a probationary constable twice recklessly pointed her firearm at him at work.

Judge Newlinds accepted the officer had an underlying mental health condition, was previously of good character and had shown some remorse.

However, he found the link between post-traumatic stress disorder and the crime was “tenuous”.

The officer will be eligible for parole in June 2031.

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