Warning: distressing content
Sixteen-year-old Mac Holdsworth had just sent an intimate image to someone he believed was an 18-year-old girl.
For half an hour he heard nothing. Then the phone rang.
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Excited, thinking it was the girl he had been sharing messages with online, he picked up.
To his horror it was a man threatening to share his image unless he was given hundreds of dollars.
The nightmare begins
Wayne Holdsworth will never forget the moment his son came to him in distress on that evening, in the middle of winter 2022, at their home on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.
What had begun as a casual conversation online with someone Mac believed was an 18-year-old girl had quickly escalated — first into the exchange of intimate photos, and then into threatening phone calls from an unknown man who demanded money or else the photo will be sent to everyone Mac knows.
By the time Mac told Wayne what was happening, he had already transferred $500 into the man’s nominated bank account in the hope of making the threat go away.
But that would not be the end of it, with the man continuing to demand more money.
Wayne, Frankston Basketball CEO, recounts the stranger’s words, as relayed by his son.
“These are his exact words: ‘I received your $500. I want another $500 into this bank account within five minutes. And if you don’t, I will send the pictures. Your parents will hate you and you’ll want to kill yourself’,” Wayne told www.20304050.best.
“I remember hugging Mac after he told me this and I felt moisture on my shoulder. He was crying. He was just really devastated that the picture might be shared.”
For more, listen to Mac’s story on 7NEWS Spectrum: The Deadly Sex Scam.
Panicked and in desperate need of help, Mac asked if Wayne could talk to the man threatening him.
“We had a really animated discussion which ended in him saying, ‘I hope you and your son die’,” Wayne said.
Shaken, Wayne called the police.
It took Victoria Police just three days to identify a suspect through the bank account Mac had sent money to. But by then, Mac’s photo had already been sent to everyone in his contact list.
It was from that moment Wayne says Mac — previously an outgoing sportsman with lots of friends — changed significantly.
“He used to be, I wouldn’t say the life of the party but he was certainly up front and laughing with everyone else and making jokes and just a normal child. And his childhood was ripped from him by that predator,” Wayne says.
What is sextortion?
To coerce someone into sending a sexual image and then threaten to share that image unless they comply with your demands is a form of online blackmail.
To the police, it is known as sexual extortion, or sextortion.
Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation’s Senior Constable Brooke Baker says the most vulnerable people targeted by offenders are generally boys aged between 11 to 17.
“They’re not there to groom the kids — they’re not there to, you know, create relationships to extort them that way,” Baker says.
“They’re there for the quick buck, regardless of what damage it does to that kid.”
Baker explains that while parents might think their children are safe using online platforms without camera or video access, often the initial contact will be made there and during the conversation the perpetrators will try to move their victim onto another platform with access.
“That conversation can take half an hour, and then they’re done,” she said.
“Hello. How are you? Send me an image. I’ll send you one. Bang. Your life is over.”
Since the Australian Federal Police-led ACCCE was launched in 2018 as a response to the increasing number of child sexual exploitation cases, there has been a significant drop in reports — but the unit remains concerned that too many Australian kids are still being targeted by online predators.
Earlier this year, a study examining the prevalence and nature of extortion attempts among a sample of 1,954 adolescents living in Australia found more than 1 in 10 had experienced sexual extortion in their lifetime.
And out of those, more than half had experienced it before the age of 16.
Baker says parents worried for their children’s safety should look for warning signs such as being glued to their phones, frequently checking messages, retreating to their rooms, showing increased anxiety, checking their bank accounts, or suddenly asking for money.
And she warns children themselves to be alert to red flags such as a random stranger reaching out online, striking up a conversation and then trying to move the chat onto a different platform.
“If they find themselves a victim of sextortion, they need to report the offender to the platform … then they need to block the offender from whatever platform they have met them on … and then they need to stop all communication,” Baker says.
Catching the suspect
In Mac’s case, the bank account details identified by Victoria Police eventually led to the arrest of a 47-year-old man in NSW in August the following year.
Officer in charge Detective Senior Constable Jason Prakash, who had received a search warrant for the suspect’s property, says it was not his first time dealing with a sextortion case like Mac’s.
“It’s starting to become very common. In the past few years, it’s rapidly increased in terms of the amount of cases we are getting,” Prakash said.
During the investigation Prakash says they looked for evidence in multiple places, including the suspect’s devices and social media platforms where the offence occurred.
While the suspect’s bank details were linked to Mac’s transfer, there was no intimate images found on his devices and the police found internet protocol (IP) details for America — which could indicate a third party was involved and behind the online conversations and threats.
The man was charged with, and later pleaded guilty to, recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime — admitting he knew the money came from an illegal activity.
In court the accused man’s lawyers said he had simply received the money from Mac into his own account, then been asked to buy crypto with that money and transfer that into someone else’s account.
Life after sextortion
Almost a year after the sextortion nightmare had begun, Mac’s mother Renee — Wayne’s former partner — died after battling MS.
Wayne noticed Mac withdrawing further, saying in hindsight the signs were obvious as Mac started to become isolated.
“That’s an opportunity to sit down and not just ask the question, ‘Are you OK?’,” he says.
“That’s not enough, because I asked Mac every day and his typical response was ‘I’m fine dad’.”
But four months later, Wayne says he saw glimpses of the old Mac at dinner one night, when he laughed at Wayne’s bad jokes and teased his sister, Daisy, as he spoke excitedly about her upcoming birthday.
That same night, Mac told his dad: “I can’t wait to drive the car to work in the morning.”
The next morning, Wayne went to wake his son up only to discover Mac had taken his own life.
“I’ll never be the same because that morning … laying him down and then having to go into the kitchen and tell his then 14-year-old sister was just unfathomable,” Wayne said.
It was Daisy who called the paramedics.
When police arrived, one officer whispered to Wayne: “I’m sorry mate, he’s gone.”
A community grieves
Mac’s funeral on November 2, 2023, drew more than 700 people. Roads around the church were closed as mourners overflowed into the street.
Wayne remembers walking out to the theme song Now We Are Free from the movie, Gladiator.
He says parents who lose children often feel the same two things.
“The first one is that you just want to take your own life, and you want to join him. Then the second thing is … life is never normal again,” Wayne said.
But Wayne chose to channel his grief.
Three months after Mac’s death, he launched SmackTalk — named both after Mac and the banter common on basketball courts — to educate people about mental health, listening skills, and suicide prevention.
“It’s more than educating people on the signs — educating people on the listening skills, you know, listening to understand before we listen to resolve and respond,” he said.
Court and sentencing
In January 2024 — 98 days after Mac’s death — Wayne sat in Liverpool Local Court as the 47-year-old man faced sentencing.
With Mac no longer alive, Wayne was allowed to read his own victim impact statement.
Detective Prakash, who accompanied Wayne, explains the maximum sentence in the local court is two years in jail.
The man was jailed for a total of 10 months, with a non-parole period of six months meaning, with time already served, he would only serve about four months more before release.
He was also ordered to repay $502.
“This does not pass the pub test,” Wayne said.
“I don’t have revenge at all. What I do have is a sense of justice because I can’t save Mac but I can help others.”
Carrying on Mac’s legacy
Since then, Wayne has devoted himself to advocacy.
Through SmackTalk and its campaigns such as Unplug24 — asking people to step away from social media on October 24, the anniversary of Mac’s death — he pushes for more awareness of the risks, and advocates for restrictions on children’s access to online platforms.
“This has gone under the radar for far too long,” Wayne warns.
“Sexual extortion is up 460 per cent in the last 18 months. It’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and we’re doing nothing as a country to fix it.”
On what would have been Mac’s birthdays, Wayne and his family visit his grave where the plaque simply reads “all good” — Mac’s favourite phrase.
Wayne always leaves yellow roses — Mac’s favourite colour.
This year, on what would have been Mac’s 19th birthday, Wayne said nothing was different.
If you need help in a crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or contact lifeline.org.au For further information about depression contact Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust.
In an emergency, call triple-0.