Ross Mark Nagle: Horrifying details of Perth news cameraman’s vile child sex crimes revealed in court

Shocking details of the vile child sex crimes a Perth news cameraman committed against six teenage girls while inducing them to prostitute themselves have been revealed in court. Ross Mark Nagle emerged from a seven year jail stretch as a registered sex offender in 2016, having committed 27 offences against 11 victims aged between 11 and 15. And in 2022 and 2023, he was back at it again, making contact with children as young as 12 on social media then grooming them into performing and being subjected to disgusting acts. Nagle has a list of charges so long that at his District Court of WA sentencing hearing on Thursday, the judge’s associate had to pause to sip water mid-way through. He was handed a multi-page print out so he could follow the proceedings. Nagle — who trawled the suburbs for crime stories at night — approached one of the victims for weeding and dog-sitting services after she posted on a Facebook community group that she was looking to earn money for household chores. She was on her school holidays and stated she was 15. “This is what I do,” he told the girl after urging her to sit on his sofa and watch a movie about an American news cameraman, telling her she was sexy and asking for a massage. She declined $1000 “for an overnight stay”. Another 15-year-old girl accepted Nagle as a friend on Snapchat, catching his attention after posting a video of herself having fun with a friend at Kings Park. The 38-year-old offered her $500 for sex and she agreed because she wanted money for a forthcoming family holiday in Queensland. Among the horrors that unfolded was Nagle choking her while defiling her, saying “Who’s your daddy?” One of his bank deposits had the descriptor: “Babysitting”. Another victim was desperate for cash and so afraid when she went to meet him, she took a knife with her. One was homeless and couch-surfing. He also choked her while filming himself raping her. Nagle paid the youngest victim between $20 and $100 for about 50 images he’d commanded her to take of herself and send to him. But she refused an instruction to punch herself in the face and also an offer of $15,000 to perform a sex act on him. The girl’s mother saw the deposits in her bank account and contacted police, who arrested Nagle in August last year. His lawyer Matthew Townsend argued his client’s relationships with the victims was “transactional”, which drew a pointed response from Judge Wendy Hughes. “They cannot consent under 16,” she said. “If there was no inducement, they wouldn’t have done it ... there was an element of grooming to get the compliance he was looking for.” His treatment of the girls had been at times rough, forceful and degrading, she said. Prosecutor Mel Shelley said some of the victims were “extremely vulnerable”. “He didn’t care about their ages ... and saw them as mere objects,” Ms Shelley said. “He has made business out of sexual offending against children. “His sole purpose was satisfying his sexual deviance.” The victims felt “forever tarnished”, the prosecutor said, reading out heart-breaking passages from their victim impact statements including: “I feel disgust always inside of myself”. “A night-time with Ross became a life time of pain,” one wrote. “I was just a kid ... who got manipulated to do things that no-one should go through,” another wrote. Judge Hughes asked how the community could be protected from Nagle when he was eventually again released, agreeing with Ms Shelley’s description of him as “resistant” to the treatment he’d been getting. Mr Townsend blamed his client’s night work for the re-offending, saying it had isolated him from everyone. Nagle had been reporting to authorities fortnightly as part of his registered sex offender status and copped additional charges for failing to advise he had unsupervised contact with the children. He will be sentenced on November 8. Sexual Assault Resource Centre 1800 199 888 Kid’s Helpline 1800 55 1800