A former South Australian cricket and football umpire has been sentenced to 23 years’ jail for numerous online child sex abuse crimes – with his youngest overseas victim being 11-years-old.

Brett Allford, 42, pleaded guilty to several offences including soliciting and possessing child exploitation material against 10 children from England and Canada.

The South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) umpire was arrested in October 2022, after British police contacted SA Police when two English girls came forward with their complaints.

A search of his phone revealed hundreds of illicit images and several videos of other underaged victims, with the oldest being 16-years of age.

Police found Allford had used Snapchat and Instagram to communicate with the girls, and gifted them with Uber Eats, clothes, make-up and money in exchange for illicit photos and videos.

The District Court heard Allford also used a screenshot recording application to covertly record the girls during intimate phone video chat conversations he had with his victims.

During sentencing, Judge Paul Muscat said Allford manipulated some of his victims by telling them he would suicide if his victim would stop communicating with him online.

“You took advantage of their personal circumstances – for your own deviant sexual desires,” Judge Muscat said.

The court heard one of Allford’s victims introduced him to several of her friends as a “sugar daddy”.

“You would befriend one victim and use that victim to connect with other victims,” the judge said.

“You were considerably older than the victims, the power imbalance was significant.”

Allford jailed for similar offending five years ago

The court heard Allford had already been convicted and jailed for previous similar offending in 2019 – and resumed contacting young children after his release from custody.

“All of your [recent] victims live overseas, making detection more difficult.

“I’m satisfied you would have continued to befriend teenage girls and offend against them in a similar way had you not been arrested.”

Judge Muscat fixed a non-parole period of 17-years.

His sentence was significantly higher than his last due to mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders under Commonwealth law.

During sentencing, Allford had his head in his hands and often shook his head while looking down.

An overseas victim watched the sentencing over Zoom along with two supporters.

None of Allford’s offending related to South Australian victims.