A Queensland man who paid to watch children being abused overseas and tried to bring his victims to Australia will spend more time in jail following an appeal.
Brendan Curt Schulz, of Mt Isa, was sentenced in November 2021 to nine years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to 32 charges related to child sex offences and child abuse material.
Over 14 months between February 8, 2019, and April 19, 2020, Schulz, then aged 35, paid a woman in the Philippines to procure children between the ages of eight and three to be abused while he watched via live-stream online videos.
Schulz suggested the woman travel to Australia with one of the children and on April 19, 2020 said he would travel to the Philippines for a week with the intention to sexually abuse multiple children.
Police raided Schulz's home three days later and found social media accounts used to communicate with the woman as well as child abuse material on his computer, mobile phones and online file storage.
In October last year the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) appealed against Schulz's sentence on the grounds that the total effective sentence and the non-parole period were manifestly inadequate.
The Brisbane Court of Appeal delivered a majority decision on Friday to uphold the appeal and re-sentence Schulz.
Justice Philip McMurdo did not support the appeal, finding that the original judge had been lenient but did not make an error.
"(CDPP) rightly submits that the offending was predatory, persistent and protracted, involving victims who were young children with a particular vulnerability due to their impoverished circumstances," Justice McMurdo said.
However, Justices John Bond and Jean Dalton found Schulz should face a longer sentence for the appalling nature of the live-streamed abuse.
"The fact that (Schulz) only solicited and directed the abuse and did not physically participate in it did not render the offending less grave," Justice Bond stated.
Schulz was re-sentenced to 13 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven-and-a-half years, which will expire in May 2029.
