Christopher Martyn Walton: Former high ranking prison officer jailed for 3.5 years for child sex offences

A retired high ranking prison officer has been thrown behind bars after he was busted for bestiality against his family dog and fantasising with other paedophiles about intercourse with babies. Australian Federal Police uncovered a “cache” of child abuse material on two mobile phones seized during a raid on Christopher Martyn Walton’s home in November 2024. The devices contained upskirt photographs of a seven-year-old girl known to him, dozens of child abuse images involving infants and videos of the 69-year-old “engaging in acts of bestiality” with his family dog. The court was told Walton had been messaging up to a dozen other paedophiles on Kik about “penetration and incest”, with District Court Judge Darren Renton describing the messages as “sickening” and “depraved”. “(The messages) showed you engaging in heavily fantasy-based conversations that covered a variety of deviancies,” he Honour said. “I’m satisfied, from the nature and content of the conversations, that both you and the other party were deriving sexual pleasure from them.” In one conversation, Walton sent a video to a 12-year-old girl — telling her, “I can’t be sending things like that to 12-year-old girls, I will do time”. In another chat, Walton spoke about engaging in sexual activities with another paedophile’s 13-year-old daughter, saying he would “like it if she was even younger”. Walton also recorded and shared videos of the seven-year-old girl known to him — an offence Judge Renton slammed as a “violation of trust”. He described Walton’s offending as “vile”, and said some of the messages involved “descriptions of humiliating acts with very young children”. “The material located on your phone is consistent with you having some level of sexual interest in pre-pubescent children and is consistent with the content of your conversations,” he said. “There was clearly an appetite for child abuse material involving those with whom you were chatting, and by your actions, you were actively participating in the maintenance of that appetite.” The 69-year-old worked as a prison officer for more than 30 years, including as Assistant Superintendent of the Special Operations Group, before he was forced to retire in 2020 due to injury. Walton began engaging in online chat groups after losing his mother and sister, claiming he felt isolated and deprived of sex because he had separated from his partner. He denied having a sexual interest in children and said he deleted some of his messages after speaking with paedophiles, saying he felt “ashamed and sickened” by his behaviour. But within days, he returned to the chat groups and continued having perverse conversations with other paedophiles. “Whilst initially using online chat groups to establish some connections, the psychologist expressed the view that the conversations turned sexual and involved children in increasingly concerning content to satisfy arousal,” Judge Walton said. “It was a gross error, on your part, to do what you did to address the boredom and to distract you from the troubles you were experiencing. “Your denials of sexual interest in children are inconsistent with genuine insight into your offending.” Judge Renton acknowledged Walton could be at risk of harm from other inmates because of his previous role, but said he would “need to be properly managed by prison authorities”. “Your time as prison officer no doubt made you well aware of both the conditions inside prison, and the way prisoners involved in child sex offences are detained and managed,” he said. “The fact that your former occupation places you at an increased risk inside prison also did not deter you.” AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Fleur Jennings said children deserved safety, dignity and protection. “Offenders who access and share this kind of abhorrent material contribute to the trauma children suffer, because they contribute to the demand for other criminals to physically harm children,” she said. “Our investigators are relentless in their pursuit of anyone participating in these sickening crimes and will use every resource available to ensure they face justice.” Walton was convicted of 13 counts of transmitting child abuse material using a carriage service and two counts of indecently recording a child under 13. He was sentenced to 3.5 years and has been ordered to serve 12 months in custody. The Department of Justice declined to comment, saying it did not comment on past employees.