How a literary idol ended up behind bars on child exploitation offences

He was a lauded and much-loved Australian author whose critically acclaimed novels formed part of school curriculums all over the nation.

Craig Silvey was, more or less, a national treasure.

Now he's languishing in a prison cell where he'll spend the best part of seven months, after being found guilty of possessing and distributing child exploitation material.

The fall of Silvey has shocked the nation.

The booklovers who devoured his beautifully written prose.

The schoolteachers who guided students through his literary techniques.

The film fans who praised the lush screen adaptations of Jasper Jones and Runt.

The adolescents and young adults who recognised themselves in his characters.

Literary darling

For many it has seemed almost impossible to reconcile the image of the man who wrote what had been considered Australian classics with the man who kept his head mostly bowed in a Perth court to hear his fate after admitting to a series of child exploitation offences.

Yet here we are.

Proof again that sex offenders are not monsters hiding in the shadows, but monsters masquerading as everyday people — or even literary idols.

Silvey was well-educated and grew up in a good household, the Perth District Court heard.

He was 22 when his debut novel, Rhubarb, became an instant hit and he quickly became a darling of the Australian literary scene.

Rhubarb was named as the book of the 2005 Perth Festival, and earned Silvey a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist award.

His star continued to rise with his second book Jasper Jones, which made its way onto school curriculums around the nation and was made into a hit film.

Honeybee and Runt followed, both smash hit novels aimed at young audiences, one dealing with the sensitive subject of transgender youth and the other a wildly popular children's story about a dog.

The themes of his young adult books included racism, sexual identity and abuse, mostly featuring teenage protagonists.

Silvey toured the country, appearing not just at festivals and on TV, but also frequently visiting schools and libraries, where he spoke about his books to his legions of young fans.

But in the Perth District Court on Monday, his years of acclaim counted for nothing as he was revealed as a depraved offender who shared graphic images of adults sexually abusing children on messaging services.

A frequenter of adult pornography websites, Silvey had connected with another user and set up a chat on a separate messaging service, this one encrypted.

Shocking material

Using the name "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy", Silvey, the father of three young children, shared his sexual fantasies and fetishes.

He liked children aged "five plus", he messaged, and eight was the "perfect age".

And he shared a series of explicit images and videos of adults sexually abusing prepubescent children.

But the fellow user was fictitious, most likely an undercover police officer, and when police raided Silvey's Fremantle home in January this year they found one such chat open on his laptop.

He was arrested and charged, but would not cooperate, refusing to provide password details to enable police to access his phone and other devices, and declining a police interview.

A later plea deal saw his original four charges whittled down to two — possession and distribution of child exploitation material.

Graphic details of Silvey's sexual interest in children was relayed to the court on Monday, despite his defence team attempting to deny such an interest and claiming he had only sought out such material because of his emotional state.

Judge Hayley Cormann was having none of it.

"Repulsive" and "degrading" were the terms she used to describe Silvey's behaviour.

'Completely shattered'

The ABC has chosen not to publish most of the disturbing details outlined in the hearing.

Judge Cormann jailed Silvey for seven months, far less than the maximum terms cited by the prosecution of 10 years for the distribution charge and seven years for possession.

The "traumatised" children depicted in the videos and images would suffer "long lasting" consequences, the judge said.

And the impact of Silvey's crimes would reach further, as prosecutor Daniel Harrop articulated in court.

"A generation of children, and particularly vulnerable children grappling with questions of gender identity and sexuality found comfort and safety in the protagonists of Mr Silvey's novels," Mr Harrop said.

Silvey's offending had "completely shattered" that feeling of safety, he said.

His crimes, he said, were a "great betrayal" of those young readers.

And a bitter reminder that celebrity and depravity are not necessarily mutually exclusive.