Trevor Scroop pleads not guilty to multiple child sex offences

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A man authorised by South Australia’s department for child protection to house First Nations children has pleaded not guilty to more than 40 charges including sexual offending against minors. Trevor James Scroop is accused of offending against children for over more than two decades.

Transcript

00:00Trevor James Scroop is accused of offending against multiple children between 1989 and 2023.

00:10The allegations can now be reported for the first time, with the matter being before the courts for 18 months,

00:18but we were unable to report on them due to suppressions in place.

00:21A previous hearing was told the former ABC employee housed young First Nation boys from the Northern Territory at his Adelaide home.

00:31The court previously heard that Mr Scroop had access to upwards of 100 children

00:35and that he and his wife were paid by Centrelink to care for them.

00:40The court also previously heard the accused was involved with Aboriginal communities since about the 1980s

00:47and that he underwent a ceremony in order to be recognised as an Aboriginal man.

00:52Mr Scroop was arraigned in South Australia's District Court today

00:56where he entered not guilty pleas to all charges.

01:00After today's hearing, police held a press conference in Darwin

01:03where they unveiled some more details about their investigation.

01:08The work and effort that's been put in place to investigate this has been complex,

01:14requiring travel across the Northern Territory and South Australia to investigate this complex investigation.

01:22Horrific, vile allegations that need to be properly processed through the court.

01:27A trial date is yet to be set, with a prosecutor today flagging that three months may need to be set aside.

01:34The matter will return to court in August.

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