Surya Subekti has become the first person in Australia convicted of trafficking a child, and he could be released in as little as four years. The former Coles and Krispy Kreme manager was sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court to six years and five months in prison, and must serve at least four years and five months before he can apply for parole, for bringing a teenage girl from Indonesia into Sydney on fake papers and selling her in the city's brothels.
His accomplice, driver Elton Valentino, was sentenced to two years and eight months for ferrying the girl between brothels. Trafficking a child carries a maximum of 25 years, so for what the Australian Federal Police calls the country's first child trafficking conviction, both men will be eligible for release well short of that.
How Surya Subekti walked a girl through the border on fake papers
The court found Subekti, 45, from Arncliffe in Sydney's south, knowingly lodged false visa documents for the girl so he could bring her from Indonesia to Australia. The papers falsely listed the teenager as the daughter of an older woman she travelled with, and he guided the pair through immigration so they passed without trouble. She'd been recruited by a syndicate figure known only as "Batman", who offered her work and the promise of a future.
53 days of forced sex work under Subekti's control
Over her 53 days in the country, the court heard, Subekti assumed full control over the girl, dictating her movements, her work hours and her money based on the demands of her sexual services. He made her work 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and told her he'd withhold her earnings until she returned to Indonesia. She was hospitalised with a sexually transmitted infection, and she was inside one brothel when it was raided.
Elton Valentino was paid $50,000 to drive the girl between brothels
Valentino, 32, a bus driver, was paid a $50,000 annual salary to drive the girl to three brothels almost every day and to act as a liaison with what the court called her "problem clients". Prosecutors accepted his financial gain was smaller than Subekti's, but noted he understood exactly what the work was.
Subekti's lawyers argued the girl had "signed a contract"
Subekti's lawyers argued his culpability was lower because the girl had already done sex work in Indonesia and had signed a contract before she left. Prosecutors rejected that outright, pointing out that as a child she was legally incapable of consenting. Judge Nicole Noman raised credibility concerns about a psychology report detailing Subekti's mental health diagnoses.
What the girl told the Downing Centre
In a victim impact statement read to the court, she described arriving healthy and hopeful and leaving broken.
"I can no longer feel what it is like to be happy."
Australia's first child trafficking conviction, cracked by a public tip
The pair were caught under Operation Mirani, an AFP led investigation launched in December 2022 after intelligence that foreign nationals were being brought into Australia and forced into sexual servitude in breach of their visas. The case began with a tip from a member of the public through the Australian Border Force's Border Watch program. In March 2024, investigators executed simultaneous search warrants in Australia and Indonesia, removing the child from Subekti's home, while Indonesian police arrested a woman recruiting more women to send to Australia. In all, seven victims were removed from harm.
Subekti pleaded guilty to trafficking in children and to causing a person under 18 to remain in forced labour, an aggravated offence under the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Valentino pleaded guilty to domestic trafficking in children. AFP Commander Brett James said syndicates like theirs "deliberately exploit language barriers, migration pathways and economic vulnerability" to hide what they do.
The case that made Australian legal history began with a fake passport, a teenager walked through the border, and a tip from an ordinary member of the public. For luring a child into the country and selling her body for 53 days, Subekti will serve a minimum of four years and five months, against a maximum penalty of 25.
