![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0ed7bada6cfd15439ef3619fe537d250.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAustralian author Craig Silvey, best known for his award-winning book Jasper Jones, has pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material.<\/p>\n
Silvey, 43, was first charged in January after police raided his home and seized electronic devices, which resulted in some bookstores immediately pulling his work from shelves.<\/p>\n
Appearing in Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning, the father-of-three pleaded guilty to the two charges, stemming from offences in January.<\/p>\n
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Craig Silvey did not talk to media as he left court on Tuesday. (ABC News: David Weber)<\/p>\n
Two other charges, including one stemming from an allegation he produced child exploitation material over a period of months in 2022, have been dropped.<\/p>\n
Sexual assault\u00a0support lines:Lifeline<\/a> (24-hour crisis line): 131 114Full Stop Australia<\/a>: 1800 385 578Bravehearts<\/a>: counselling and support for survivors of child sexual abuse: 1800\u00a0272\u00a0831Child Wise<\/a>: counselling provider: 1800\u00a0991\u00a0099<\/p>\n The charges Silvey pleaded guilty to involve images of child exploitation material.<\/p>\n Silvey had nothing to say to waiting media when he left court.<\/p>\n He is next scheduled to appear in the District Court in July, and his bail was continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aside from Jasper Jones which was adapted into a feature film, Silvey has won numerous accolades for other books, including Rhubarb, Honeybee and Runt, a children’s novel that was also made into a film.<\/p>\n Author Craig Silvey at a book signing for his novel Runt in September, 2024. (Facebook: Craig Silvey)<\/p>\n Silvey’s books were widely used in school English classes, but WA Education Minister Sabine Winton later ordered schools to stop using the texts while the matter was under investigation.<\/p>\n His books have been popular with children and young adults, often delving into profound themes such as racism, sexual identity and abuse, mostly featuring teenage protagonists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian author Craig Silvey, best known for his award-winning book Jasper Jones, has pleaded guilty to possessing and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10354,216925,269605,269604,269607,269606,43,216926,44,14666,86,41,39,42,40,14665,45,269608],"class_list":["post-650447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-child-exploitation","tag-craig-silvey","tag-craig-silvey-child-exploitation-material","tag-craig-silvey-child-sex-charges","tag-craig-silvey-fremantle-court","tag-craig-silvey-in-court","tag-headlines","tag-jasper-jones","tag-news","tag-perth-courts","tag-perth-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wa-courts","tag-wa-news","tag-what-is-craig-silvey-charged-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650447","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=650447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Craig](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7175b2cacca1d4c80626d5cbb9d6a0c7.jpeg\")
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