New Delhi, Feb. 5 -- A man in Australia's Queensland has been charged with 596 cases of child abuse offences in which he used fake online identities in order to groom children, mainly boys, aged from seven to 15 in both Australia as well as other countries.

The 27-year-old accused, Ethan Mitch Burns-Dederer, was arrested in February 2025. The investigation into Burns-Dederer's crimes were ongoing for the past 12 months, in which 23,000 photos and videos were recovered from his hard drive.

The probe has identified 259 victims of child abuse, but police allege there were 200 more victims.

Burns-Dederer has been charged with 244 counts of producing material that is deemed child abuse, 163 counts of procuring persons under 16 using a carri...