Melbourne man alleged to have operated a global paedophile ring faces court on charges of child sex abuse, human trafficking and murder

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A detective with the bureau of investigation in the Philippines says prosecutors have a “very strong case” against Melbourne man Peter Scully, who was arrested in March for allegedly operating a global paedophile ring from Mindanao.

Scully will face court in the Philippines on Tuesday to enter a plea in one of two court cases against him, having been charged with the murder of a 12-year-old girl, human trafficking and child sexual abuse offences.

Scully, 51, is accused of sexually abusing at least eight girls over a three-year period, with police alleging he streamed their torture to paying customers using the internet.

His victims ranged from 18 months to 13 years old, police allege.

Speaking to Guardian Australia from the Philippines on Tuesday, a senior investigator on the case, Roy Zuñiga, said it had been a difficult investigation.

“We began investigating Scully in January, after the investigation of serious child abuse videos commenced and those videos showed a male, Caucasian perpetrator,” he said.

“We had so few leads to begin with, and working with our foreign law enforcement counterparts we were able to identify the man. From that case, we found other cases of child abuse involving him.

“We definitely now have a very strong case against Mr Scully.”

The investigation has also involved Dutch and Australian authorities.

Zuñiga said police would be pursuing the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for Scully, who has been living in the Philippines since 2011.

Customers allegedly paid Scully up to $10,000 to view the child exploitation and abuse material, police say.

Another investigator on the case, Angelito Magno, told the ABC that one video involved an 18-month-old baby girl being hanged upside down while being tortured.

“She was crying all the time,” he told the ABC.

Four of Scully’s alleged victims have provided statements to police.

According to statistics from the United Nations and the FBI in the US, there are about 750,000 child sex predators online at any one time. The Australian federal police described the sexual exploitation of children online and through child sex tourism as “one of the most serious emerging transnational crime threats in the Asia-Pacific region”.