Former professional BMX rider Rhys Kember claims 'miscarriage of justice' followed child sex pleas

Rhys Karl Kember, 34, was on track to represent Australia at the Tokyo Olympic Games before police arrested him in May 2020 and charged him with a series of crimes committed in Canberra.

The former professional BMX rider, who was also a stuntman in the Fast & Furious film franchise, ultimately pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court to six offences relating to five teenage girls.

He admitted three counts of soliciting child abuse material, and single charges of procuring a child for sexual activity, possessing child abuse material and transmitting indecent material.

Those crimes landed him behind bars in June, when Chief Justice Lucy McCallum sentenced Kember to three years in jail and ordered him to serve eight months of the term in full-time custody.

Kember subsequently appealed against the severity of the sentence and sought bail until his challenge could be heard, only to be denied conditional release by the ACT Court of Appeal in early October.

He made another self-represented bail application on Wednesday, when Justice David Mossop said Kember had recently amended his notice of appeal in order to also challenge his convictions.

It was unclear whether Kember wanted to challenge all six convictions or just some of them, but Justice Mossop explicitly referred to four as he gave his reasons for again refusing bail.

The appeal court judge said Kember had produced "printouts" from social media that purported to show the 34-year-old had blocked the victim of one offence and therefore could not have contacted her on the dates contained in the solicitation of child abuse material charge that related to that girl.

But Justice Mossop noted the agreed facts, upon which Kember was sentenced, recorded him telling police the girl had communicated with him through someone else's Instagram account while blocked, while the offender had also told investigators he had "swapped nude photos" with her.

The court heard Kember wanted to challenge another conviction by arguing he did not know the age of a girl he previously admitted procuring for sexual activity, but Justice Mossop found the "possible contention" around this was not, of itself, a basis for a claim there had been a miscarriage of justice.

In relation to another solicitation of child abuse material charge, Kember indicated he now wanted to contest whether images found on his phone in fact met the criteria to be classified as such.

But Justice Mossop said these were not in evidence before him, so it could not be said that the images were "so obviously not child abuse material" that there had been a miscarriage of justice.

The final conviction Justice Mossop detailed was one of transmitting indecent material to a child.

This offence involved Kember asking a girl about her sexual experience and whether she sent "nudes".

MORE COURT AND CRIME COVERAGE:

The judge said while Kember now disputed whether these communications were indecent, it was clearly open to conclude they were both that and "manipulative".

Turning to Kember's appeal against his sentence, Justice Mossop found nothing had changed since he dealt with the last bail application in October.

"The prospects of the appeal appear to be very low," the judge said.

Kember's appeal will not be heard until after February 2023, when he is due to be freed from prison on a recognisance release order.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: