{"id":283276,"date":"2025-11-14T05:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T05:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283276\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T05:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T05:17:10","slug":"michael-wilson-pleads-not-guilty-to-rape-possessing-child-abuse-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/283276\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Wilson pleads not guilty to rape, possessing child abuse material"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">An accused sex offender reportedly linked to alleged paedophile Joshua Brown has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in Victoria&#8217;s County Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Prosecutors claim the investigation of Hoppers Crossing man <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-10-21\/accused-paedophile-michael-wilson-failed-suppression-bid\/105915650\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105915650\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Simon Wilson led them to discover sex offences allegedly committed by Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">On Friday, Mr Wilson faced the Melbourne Magistrates&#8217; Court via video link and chose to fast-track his case without a full committal hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He is facing more than 60 charges, including rape, possessing and transmitting child abuse material, and bestiality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Mr Wilson are you guilty or not guilty,&#8221; Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Not guilty, your honour,&#8221; he replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Mr Wilson is not accused of committing crimes related to childcare centres.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He will face a County Court directions hearing on December 15. A trial could take place in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Mr Wilson is facing a second lot of charges relating to a separate investigation dating back to 2018, which include rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and stalking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">That case looks set to go to a committal hearing, requiring prosecutors to present evidence and potentially call witnesses before a magistrate decides if it should proceed to trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Last month, prosecutors said a recent investigation into Mr Brown was &#8220;kickstarted&#8221; after officers searched Mr Wilson&#8217;s phone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Police allegedly found &#8220;discussions about child abuse material&#8221; between the pair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Mr Brown, who has not yet been required to enter a plea in his case, <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-07-01\/childcare-worker-alleged-sexual-assaults-melbourne-west\/105480228\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/105480228\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is facing more than 70 child sex offences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He is alleged to have abused eight children aged between five months and two years of age, between 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">The case prompted the Victorian government to announce major reforms to the childcare sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An accused sex offender reportedly linked to alleged paedophile Joshua Brown has pleaded not guilty and will stand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,13876,163649,110931,44,6671,163650],"class_list":{"0":"post-283276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-child-abuse","11":"tag-child-care-abuse","12":"tag-michael-wilson","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sexual-assault","15":"tag-sexual-offences"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}