AUSTRALIAN author Craig Silvey has been charged with child exploitation offences.
Silvey appeared in court charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material.
The prosecutors said Silvey had engaged in an online conversation during which he expressed a sexual interest in children, and there was evidence he had provided images.
The court learnt he had used an adult website under the name “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy”.
The father of three did not enter a plea during his appearance in Freemantle Magistrates Courts on Tuesday.
According to local reports, Silvey showed no emotion throughout the hearing and spent most of it looking down.
Despite the prosecutor claiming Silvey was a “flight risk” and that he was not cooperating with investigators, the court granted him bail on $100,000 surety.
However, the author was warned that “imprisonment is a likely outcome”.
The 43-year old was arrested on Monday after police raided his home in Perth.
The cops allege he was actively engaging with other child exploitation offenders when they arrived.
“On Monday, 12 January, 2026, detectives executed a search warrant at the man’s Fremantle home where they allegedly located him actively engaging with other child exploitation offenders online,” police said in a statement.
“He was immediately arrested, and his electronic devices seized.”
Silvey is best known for his novel Jasper Jones which have sold more than half a million copies.
It is often a prescribed text in schools and was made into film starring Toni Collette in 2017.
The book won the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year Award.
It was later shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Awards and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Another of his books, Runt, was also made into a film starring Celeste Barber in 2022.
His writing remains hugely popular with children and young adults, with novels regularly engaging in dark themes such as sexual identity and abuse.
Silvey is due to appear in court again in February.
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