Canberra: An Australian author has been found guilty of creating child sexual abuse material after a New South Wales (NSW) court ruled that an erotic age-gap romance novel she wrote sexually objectified children.
The NSW court heard the book centres on a relationship between an 18-year-old woman and her father’s 45-year-old best friend, depicting the older man’s desires that began when the protagonist was a child and including scenes in which the character adopts toddler-like behaviour.
The author, Lauren Mastrosa, 34, argued that the protagonist is clearly identified as an adult throughout the novel. However, Magistrate Bree Chisholm rejected that argument, finding that the work’s descriptions, language and imagery presented the character as a child during sexualised scenes.
After reading the entire book, published under the pen name Tori Woods, Magistrate Chisholm said a reasonable reader would find the material ‘undeniably offensive’. The magistrate remarked that, “Importantly, those descriptions and language are used in the portions of the book to describe a character similar to a young child when the sexual activity is occurring. The reader is left with a description that creates the visual image in one’s mind of an adult male engaging in sexual activity with a young child.”
The court noted that while the novel references the character being 18, those mentions were insufficient to counter the broader implication that she is portrayed as a child. The book’s presentation, including a pastel pink cover and child-like imagery, was also cited as reinforcing that interpretation.
Mastrosa issued an advance release of the novel to 21 readers in March of last year, before a complaint about its content was made to the police. She was found guilty of one count each of creating, possessing and distributing child abuse material.
Mastrosa is due to return to court for sentencing on April 28. At the time she was charged, BaptistCare confirmed she had been stood down from her role as a marketing executive for a Christian charity pending an internal investigation.
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