'Deeply ashamed': Paedophile's handwritten message to victims

A CCTV still of Sydney childcare worker David James buying a drink was used by police to track him down. (Supplied: NSW District Court)

Court documents have revealed police located a Sydney childcare worker within a week of him posting pictures of minors to the dark web.

David William James was unmasked by police to be behind the online moniker "Remy", who uploaded several images of children online in 2024.

James has pleaded guilty to 11 offences and is due to be sentenced in the District Court next month.

Investigators were knocking on the door of a disgraced Sydney childcare worker within a week of him posting images of children on the darknet after identifying the user through metadata and CCTV, court documents have revealed.

David William James, who is awaiting sentence next month, has told a judge in a handwritten letter that he is "deeply ashamed" and "truly sorry" after pleading guilty to 11 offences related to his production and possession of child abuse material.

James exploited the trust placed in him at six out-of-school-hours care centres across Sydney over three years to 2024, which were among nearly 60 centres where he had worked since 2018, by taking images and short videos of boys aged five and six.

In some of the material, he carried out a sexual act towards the children.

He initially refused to give investigators the passwords to an iPhone and Macbook when they presented him with a search warrant in September 2024.

According to a set of agreed facts before the NSW District Court, the trail that led to James was picked up one week earlier by an officer who was part of a Queensland Police operation targeting online offences, including on the darknet.

That officer had tracked the online activity of a user who went by "Remy", who appeared to be online most evenings, Australian time.

One night that September, "Remy" posted six images of boys aged approximately five to seven years old, including one image from which metadata was extracted.

That metadata revealed the date and time of the photo — taken in the week prior — as well as a location in Chatswood Mall, the facts reveal.

Police then obtained CCTV footage of the area and quickly identified James in a crowd, appearing to take a series of photographs of a child on the shoulders of a man.

A CCTV image showing David James (far right) taking a picture of a minor which he later uploaded to the internet. (Supplied: NSW District Court)

The interaction lasted around a minute and the man and child were unaware, the court documents say.

James was tracked to a nearby pub, where CCTV