Sydney man allegedly filmed himself raping young child

A 31-year-old Sydney man allegedly filmed himself sexually abusing young children and shared the footage online.

The St Clair man was charged today with 152 charges, including multiple counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 years.

He was initially arrested in May 2020 in a large-scale investigation into a global network of alleged child sex predators.

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The St Clair man is now facing nearly 200 charges, including some related to bestiality.

Yesterday a 31-year-old man from Willoughby in Sydney's north was arrested at his home in connection with the child sex ring.

He has been charged with one count of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service.

The Willoughby man is the 20^th man arrested in Operation Arkstone.

The ring was exposed when AFP investigators examined the phone of a man from Wyong on the NSW Central Coast.

AFP Commander Hilda Sirec said child exploitation has got worse during the pandemic.

"We need to remove these children from harm and importantly, with law enforcement in Australia and across the globe, we must arrest those who carry out these heinous crimes," she said.

"As a society we still find it too confrontational to talk about child sexual abuse and exploitation. So we must have more conversations with the community and inform them that this crime is more pervasive and wide-spread than realised."

Commander Sirec said Australia needs to fight the exploitation of children with the same purpose and urgency as the country fought the COVID-19 pandemic.

"No one nation is immune to the threat of child sexual abuse and no one nation can tackle it alone," she said.

"Sadly, there are victims and child sex offenders throughout the world."

Since Operation Arkstone began in early 2020, there have been 53 children removed from further harm in Australia, the AFP said.

Nearly 150 international referrals have been made with police in Europe, Asia, North America and New Zealand.

Three alleged offenders have since been arrested in the USA, and one in Canada.