Hair stylist who worked with some of Australia’s biggest stars learns fate after he was caught with vile child abuse video
An award-winning hair stylist, who once worked with musicians including The Veronicas, has avoided time in prison after admitting to soliciting a child abuse video.
Darcy Lynwood Stratford, 51, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court on Friday to one count each of using a carriage service to transmit and to solicit child abuse material to himself.
The court heard that Stratford had been in contact with another alleged offender who had been targeted by police, The Courier-Mail reported.
Stratford handed his phone to cops after officers raided his home in the rural town of Murgon in Queensland’s southeast.
Crown prosecutor Holly Wiffen told the court Stratford and the other alleged offender used WhatsApp to share messages in private.
On 8 August 2023, Stratford received an explicit video of a dog and two adults, which was not the subject of the charges.
‘Stratford then asked ‘any boys doing that?’,’ Ms Wiffen said.
The court was told the stylist then received footage showing boys, who were believed to be aged between three and 10, being abused with a sex toy.
Award-winning hair stylist Darcy Stratford (pictured on the right with The Veronicas’ Jess Origliasso) was spared jail after pleading guilty to offences related to child abuse material
During the sentencing, Judge Brad Farr said the behaviour of Stratford (pictured) was ‘intolerable and vile’ but accepted that there were exceptional circumstances in the case
The next morning, Stratford thanked him and said more videos would be welcome.
About two weeks later, he messaged the man three times saying more ‘f***d up’ things were ‘welcome’, though no further material was sent.
‘The offences are not victimless crimes. The material in this case involved real children with actual penetration,’ Ms Wiffen told the court.
‘The defendant’s conduct encourages the production of that type of material.’
Stratford’s solicitor Rebecca Fogerty told the court childhood trauma had caused psychiatric impairments that influenced his behaviour.
‘Trauma really governed the why of his offending,’ she said.
‘He didn’t seek it out because of an isolated paedophilic desire or curiosity or, as we sometimes see, because he became desensitised from adult pornography.’
Ms Fogerty told the court Stratford was remorseful and stopped the behaviour before police intervention, adding that he posed a low risk of reoffending.
After pleading guilty to two charges at Brisbane District Court on Friday, Stratford (pictured, left, with Kate Miller-Heidke) was placed on probation with a three-year good behaviour bond
In his decision, Judge Brad Farr noted the video Stratford obtained was vile sexual abuse of real children.
‘Such behaviour, of course, is intolerable and vile,’ he said.
But the judge said he accepted there were extenuating circumstances, including Stratford’s ‘dysfunctional and disturbing’ upbringing, chronic depression, complex PTSD, and impaired judgment linked to medication withdrawal at the time.
He also took into consideration Stratford’s guilty pleas, remorse, and that he ‘didn’t present with an underlying pedophilic interest’.
Judge Farr said the offending involved ‘serious’ material but at the lower end of the scale.
He highlighted that Stratford had not shared the video, deleted it, and communicated only with one other person.
Stratford was sentenced to one year in jail but was released immediately on a $1,000 three-year good behaviour bond and two years’ probation.
The stylist won the Queensland Hairdresser of the Year award three times.
He has previously worked with high-profile clients including The Veronicas’ Jess and Lisa Origliasso, Megan Washington and Kate Miller-Heidke.
