This story contains distressing content
He’s described as an elite Scots College schoolboy with a ‘big brain’, but what this 21-year-old from a wealthy Sydney family did in depraved internet chatrooms is the worst I’ve encountered in decades of crime reporting.
Cruelty, violence and the degradation of others are always appalling, but Ethan Ungerboeck’s secret life involving child abuse material and videos depicting the torture and killing of animals takes it to another level.
Sitting next to him in the courtroom, catching a whiff of his arrogance and entitlement as he twitched through a bargained-down plea deal, I found myself wondering what, exactly, he had done.
I’ve seen deviance, perversion and debauchery in court files before, but never on the industrial scale of Ungerboeck’s crimes.
Nor have I seen such a clear appetite – an almost gleeful enjoyment – in the humiliation, pain, terror and suffering of others, whether babies, young children, or cats and dogs.
If the judge doesn’t lock him up next month – and even with the watered-down charges, he faces up to 15 years – neighbours with pets should be on high alert.
But first, let’s address the lengthy document that is Ethan Tyler Ungerboeck’s NSW Police statement of agreed facts. Its sadism, celebration of shame and depravity, and sheer brutality made me want to cry.
Touted as an elite Scots College schoolboy with a ‘big brain’, this 21-year-old from a wealthy Sydney family committed crimes in depraved chatrooms worse than anything I’ve seen in decades of crime reporting
His name is Ethan Ungerboeck. His offences involving child abuse material and animal crush material depicting the torture and killing of animals are so vile they would bring most decent people to tears
Ungerboeck appeared at one court appearance on crutches
He is described as a 21-year-old university student and former bartender, living at his wealthy parents’ $6million, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house in Maroubra – the scene of all his offending.
There, he satisfied his malevolent urges, no doubt channelling that ‘towering intellect’ so praised by his defence – read: feel sorry for the troubled genius – using technology to penetrate the dark web.
Police found everything on a Telegram account with the self-important username ArchivistofArchives, an HP laptop, and a Deepcool computer tower he’d owned since he was a schoolboy in 2016.
He stored files on a USB drive so cluttered with filth and horror that it must have broken the hearts of the AFP cyber officers who uncovered his secrets.
It was 2024, and they were investigating ‘The Com’, an online community involved in cybercrime, child sexual abuse material, right-wing extremism, terrorism, and sextortion or coercive violence.
Among these groups were ‘Harm Nation’, which extorts young girls into self-harm and posts their photos and videos online, as well as the Gore Group, devoted to animal torture, killing and sexual abuse.
The groups used Telegram, an encrypted messaging service, to trade text, video, audio and other electronic files – often with innocuous names to disguise their depraved content.
That’s where police encountered Ethan Ungerboeck.
The Police Statement of Agreed Facts on Ethan Tyler Ungerboeck (above, with lawyer Michael Bowe) stands out for its sadism, its celebration of shame and depravity, and its sheer brutality
One of Ungerboeck’s excuses to get him off any penalties for violence is his poor mental health and cannabis use
Unusually, Ungerboeck’s statement of facts, tendered to Downing Centre Court, begins with a caution: ‘Warning sensitive and distressing content. This document contains text-based child abuse material, bestiality material and animal crush material.’
It further states that the matters described may only be ‘transmitted or accessed for the purposes provided by law’, meaning that relating the child abuse offences in full detail would risk re-offending Ethan’s crimes.
You won’t really want to hear it all, believe me, but we’ll give some hints as to its ghastly breadth.
The child abuse material that Ungerboeck was charged over consists of images and videos of mostly naked female children ranging in age from a one-year-old up to 17.
Things are done to children by adults with objects. Dogs are forced into sexual acts with men and women. In one video, a male engages sexually with a snake.
The so-called ‘animal crush’ material at the centre of Ethan’s offences depicts the vivid, brutal slaying of puppies and kittens.
On an Emtec USB drive, Ungerboeck saved 4,034 image files and 101 videos – all of which were downloaded or created when Ethan was a child and ‘predominantly’ not accessed since he was 16.
On his Telegram account, Ungerboeck saved 16 videos containing child abuse material, and exchanged messages about a video which depicts kittens being tortured and killed
Ungerboeck’s file name for several images is ‘loli’, involving children aged between four and ten.
On his Telegram account, Ungerboeck saved 16 videos containing child abuse material and exchanged messages with a user called ‘oy mondo’ to receive videos of animal crush material.
The facts cite an 18-minute, five-second video titled ‘Dead cats on Sesame Street Volume 2 – f***ed up media productions’, a compilation of kittens being tortured and killed.
The methods included animals being hanged, beaten, drowned, crushed, nailed, burned and placed in a blender.
Other videos received by Ungerboeck show the torture and killing of monkeys. His Telegram group chats with others feature their appalling descriptions of violence to animals, including a hamster, a goat and a quail.
If he avoids jail, Ethan could remain in the family’s luxury home – either the Maroubra mansion (above) or his new ‘architecturally designed dress circle’ address listed in court documents
According to the documents, Ungerboeck recorded himself singing along to ‘existing rap song lyrics which he changed in a way that constituted child abuse material’ about a ‘baby’.
In a conversation with another Telegram user, who had his account deleted for making a coded reference for child pornography, Ungerboeck again mentions sexual acts with children.
He sends user oy mondo a two-hour, 50-minute suicide video of a Russian man shooting himself with an assault rifle.
Police arrested Ethan Ungerboeck in December 2024 and charged him with 17 offences, 12 relating to child abuse material, two to bestiality and three to animal crush material.
When arrested, Ungerboeck quickly turned on his associates, revealing the groups’ secrets and how to find them, boasting to detectives that his entry was ‘invite only, you know, similar to drug dealers. You have to know them.’
Ungerboeck’s vile material was found on his Deepcool computer and HP laptop, a USB drive
The Scots College graduate complained he had been bullied at the elite school. Police found he had started accessing child abuse material from a young age
Last week, when Ungerboeck’s high-profile solicitor Michael Bowe sought his client’s tenth delay in court, Judge Susan Horan responded with open disbelief.
When Mr Bowe insisted the defence hadn’t ‘been sitting on our hands,’ she replied: ‘Ten committal hearings is ten too many.’
Following a discussion with prosecutors, Mr Bowe secured a reduction of his client’s charges – ten were withdrawn – in exchange for guilty pleas.
Ungerboeck pleaded guilty to possessing or controlling child abuse material accessed via a carriage service, producing child abuse material with intent to transmit using a carriage service, and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material on a USB, and to using a carriage service to cause offence by providing audio-visual material depicting another person fatally shooting themselves in the head.
The guilty pleas included two counts of possessing bestiality material and three counts of possessing animal crush material.
Ungerboeck, who had dated a 16-year-old girl when aged 20, had bitten her so hard that half her face went numb, and burnt her with a cigarette
Ethan Ungerboeck (pictured as a child with his sister) used to go into his parents’ advertising firm in his Scots College uniform
A further two charges, relating to transmitting offensive material and using child abuse material, which did not result in a conviction, will be considered at Ungerboeck’s sentencing next month.
Among the child abuse material cited in Ungerboeck’s offences was ‘an image of a female child aged 15 to 16 years wearing a white top pulled down to expose her breasts.
‘On the young female’s chest is a recent cutting which reads UBAY X ETHAN. The wound still has blood dripping down her chest on her white top,’ the documents said.
Ungerboeck, who had dated a 16-year-old girl when aged 20, had bitten her so hard that half her face went numb, and burnt her with a cigarette.
Ungerboeck eventually pleaded guilty to four domestic violence charges in relation to his treatment of the 16-year-old, but wasn’t convicted because his lawyer successfully argued that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression.
He told the girl he had a number of girls around the world with his name carved into their bodies.
Although police were investigating him as part of a broader probe into online groups trading images of children engaged in sexual acts and self-harm, Ungerboeck was charged over the ‘cutting’ image with an offence of possessing child abuse material and pleaded guilty.
At sentencing, Ungerboeck’s lawyer is expected to cite his client’s mental health in an attempt to keep him out of prison.
If successful, Ungerboeck could remain in the family’s luxury home – whether the Maroubra residence or his new ‘architecturally designed dress circle’ address, complete with European appliances and marble benchtops – as listed in his latest court documents.
His fate will be decided at sentencing next month.
