A prominent Australian author is facing charges of child sexual exploitation after being found in possession of child sexual abuse material. Craig Silvey, best known for his youth-focused fiction books, is reportedly not cooperating with investigators.
Silvey, 43, was arrested on Monday after detectives executed a search warrant at his Fremantle home, seizing his electronic devices in the process. He was charged with the possession and distribution of child exploitation material. According to multiple Australian news outlets, detectives allegedly found him “actively engaging” online with other people involved in child exploitation when police arrived.
On January 13, Silvey appeared at Fremantle Magistrates Court, where prosecutors opposed granting him bail, noting that he was not cooperating with investigators and describing him as a significant flight risk. However, Magistrate Thomas Hall granted Silvey bail with both a $100,000 surety and a $100,000 personal undertaking.
Hall also imposed conditions on Silvey, detailing that he was not allowed to leave Western Australia or engage in any work involving children. He was also told he was only allowed to use the internet for legal advice, banking and medical purposes.
Despite being granted bail, Silvey was not immediately released from custody as he was unable to meet the surety.
Silvey’s work has been widely used as secondary school set texts, led by his bestselling 2009 novel Jasper Jones, which achieved mass adoption in classrooms across Australia and was later adapted into a feature film. The Western Australia Education Minister, Sabine Winton, has said Silvey’s books would be stripped from the curriculum in 2026 while the charges were under investigation, according to ABC Australia.
“The nature of these allegations is deeply concerning,” Winton told ABC. “I have asked the Department of Education to ensure that schools cease using texts by Craig Silvey for the 2026 school year while the allegations are under investigation.”
Following news of his arrest, the City of Subiaco also issued a statement confirming that Silvey would no longer have any affiliation with its Young Writers Award, of which he had been made a patron in 2023.
Silvey’s books were almost all youth-focused, often featuring minor protagonists. One of his most recent novels, Honeybee, follows a 14-year-old “trans kid” struggling with a lack of acceptance and home stability.
The protagonist, Sam, is a boy who identifies as a “girl,” and the novel details Sam being exposed to online and offline predators – including adults who sexualize or take advantage of him. Sam eventually finds “safety and acceptance” in a “found family” which includes a Drag Queen, a suicidal older man named “Vic”, and his neighbor. Sam later adopts the feminine name “Victoria,” a nod to his older male friend.
Silvey has said that he consulted with various trans rights organizations to write Honeybee, including TransFolk of Western Australia, and that he interviewed a number of trans people of various ages and backgrounds in order to be “respectful” of the community. The novel won the 2021 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year in the Fiction category.
Honeybee also inspired a number of schools to create “Honeybee Clubs” – LGBT “safe space” initiatives for minors.
In 2021, Silvey promoted a petition aimed at having all “gender affirming surgeries” subsidized by Medicare. The petition lamented that Medicare was not providing a rebate on all gender affirming surgeries, making them prohibitively expensive for some.
“Medicare still classifies some gender affirming surgeries as cosmetic, meaning they are ineligible for subsidy,” Silvey wrote. “We need to recognise that comprehensive access to this form of health care is essential for members of the Trans and Gender Diverse community. These are not elective, cosmetic procedures. They can and do save lives.”
Around the time of Honeybee’s release, Silvey also took to social media to remind people not to “misgender” his transgender protagonist.
“As it’s Trans Awareness Week, and HONEYBEE is generating a lot of discussion and reviews, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about pronouns, because I’ve noticed Sam being occasionally misgendered out there in the wild,” Silvey wrote. “Pronouns reflect a person’s gender identity, and since Sam identifies as female, it’s respectful practice to use she/her/hers pronouns.”
Silvey is next expected to appear in court on February 10.
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