Christopher James Bartle

Sources

1. Cooloongup man, 65, charged with 29 historical sex abuse offences over alleged offending against four girls, The West Australian, March 30, 2025.
2. Cooloongup man accused of historical child sex offences dies just weeks before trial, Coast 97.3, April 1, 2026.
3. Christopher James Bartle: Gerard Ross murder suspect dead ahead of historical child sex abuse trial , The Nightly, April 1, 2026.

• 1. Cooloongup man, 65, charged with 29 historical sex abuse offences over alleged offending against four girls

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  • The West Australian

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  A Perth man has been charged with almost 30 historical sex abuse offences over the alleged assault of four young girls.
  Sex assault squad detectives charged 65-year-old Cooloongup man Christopher James Bartle with multiple counts of rape and indecent dealing offences.
  Police allege Mr Bartle either raped, had a relationship with or indecently dealt with four female victims aged between eight and 15.
  It is alleged that the offending took place between 1998 and 2007.
  Mr Bartle faced Rockingham Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with 29 offences relating to the sexual penetration of a child, two charges of sexual relationship with a child and 11 indecent dealing offences.
  He was remanded in custody to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on February 21.
  Police are continuing their investigation and urge anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
  Anybody who is a victim of sexual abuse is urged by detectives to contact police on 131 444.
  Information can be provided anonymously through the Safe2Say online reporting platform.

• 2. Cooloongup man accused of historical child sex offences dies just weeks before trial

  • 20260401
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  • Coast 97.3

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  A Cooloongup man accused of dozens of historical child sex offences has died just weeks before he was due to stand trial.

  Christopher James Bartle was charged with 31 offences relating to the alleged rape and indecent dealing of four girls aged between eight and 15, over a period of nine years between 1998 and 2007.

  The 66-year-old was due to appear in the Perth District Court on April 17 for a trial hearing after pleading not guilty to all his charges, but The West Australian reports he died in late March.

  In the about section on Mr Bartle's flickr account, he wrote that he suffered from an autoimmune disease.

  "I am a geek, a retired computer technician, and a camera freak, I no longer shoot professionally in my spare time, I am end stage with an autoimmune disease that has ended a lot of things for me," he wrote.

  Bartle also said he photographed hockey matches for the Rockingham Redbacks, UWA Hockey Club and the Western Australian State junior teams.

  The West Australian also revealed Mr Bartle was a suspect in the 1997 unsolved murder of schoolboy Gerard Ross in Rockingham.

  He was interviewed but never charged.

• 3. Christopher James Bartle: Gerard Ross murder suspect dead ahead of historical child sex abuse trial

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  • The Nightly

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  A suspect in the Gerard Ross murder investigation has died before facing trial over dozens of historical child sex abuse charges, leaving alleged victims devastated and without their day in court.

  A suspect in one of Australia’s most baffling unsolved murder cases has died before he was able to go on trial accused of dozens of historical child sexual abuse charges.

  Detectives from the Western Australia Police Force’s sex assault squad charged Christopher James Bartle last year with 31 historical child sex offences, including multiple counts of rape and indecent dealing.

  Police alleged that, between 1998 and 2007, Mr Bartle sexually abused four girls aged between eight and 15.

  The West Australian can now reveal Mr Bartle, from Rockingham, was also a suspect in the unsolved 1997 murder of schoolboy Gerard Ross.

  Gerard disappeared during a family holiday in Rockingham almost 30 years ago while walking to a nearby comic shop. A fortnight later, his body was found in the Karnup pine plantation, about 20km away.

  Mr Bartle, a computer technician and junior sports photographer, lived a few kilometres from where Gerard was last seen. He was one of hundreds of suspects identified during the investigation.

  Police interviewed Mr Bartle at the time but never charged him in relation to Gerard’s abduction or murder.

  In 2019, The West Australian released an eight-part investigative documentary, The Boy in the Blue Cap: The Gerard Ross Story.

  Before Gerard’s disappearance, Mr Bartle had been a member of the white supremacist Australian Nationalists Movement and a follower of its leader, Jack Van Tongeren.

  In 1990, Mr Bartle, Van Tongeren and four others were arrested as part of a high-level police operation called Operation Jackhammer.

  They were collectively convicted of hundreds of offences linked to a violent campaign intended to drive Asian and Jewish Australians out of the country.

  After his release from Fremantle Prison in 1993, Mr Bartle settled in Rockingham and took up photography.

  The father-of-four later shared more than 150,000 images on photo-sharing website Flickr, describing himself as a “very enthusiastic amateur photographer”.

  Much of his work focused on junior sport.

  Mr Bartle claimed on his Flickr account to be the Rockingham Redbacks Hockey Club’s photographer, however the club says he was never an appointed or approved photographer for the club and in fact was repeatedly asked to leave its stadium in Port Kennedy. The club says the police were also called on a number of occasions.

  “I try not to capture any image that may cause embarrassment or that goes against my own moral standards,” Mr Bartle wrote online.

  In 2015, he posted a photo of his Working With Children Check card, describing how difficult it had been to obtain.

  “Sports photographers are not required or eligible to have a working with childrens check card, this is because there is no way a photographer can groom or harm a child,” he wrote.

  “I have tried for years to get a WWCC, but photographers are not required or eligible to have a WWCC.

  “Through my church I was able to obtain a WWCC; finally I found a way to get one and I present my WWCC to the world. Finally a way to prove that I am honourable.”

  In response to another user, he added: “It sickens me that such a card even exists.”

  “Those that harm children are a problem to me — on one hand I want to execute them and on the other I have a problem with the death penalty.”

  In 2011, one of Mr Bartle’s alleged victims reported to police that he had sexually abused her when she was 15. He denied the allegation.

  More complainants came forward in subsequent years.

  In February 2025, police arrested and charged Mr Bartle with dozens of historical child sex offences.

  When he first appeared in Rockingham Magistrates Court on February 13 last year, he was refused bail, partly due to living near a school and his wife working as a tutor.

  He was later granted bail in Armadale Magistrates Court after providing a $10,000 personal undertaking and a $10,000 surety.

  His matter was set for a trial listing hearing in the Perth District Court on April 17.

  But Mr Bartle died on March 21, aged 66. Sources say the circumstances are not suspicious.

  His alleged victims told The West Australian his death has denied them their chance at justice.

  One woman, who alleges Mr Bartle abused her between the ages of six and nine, said she was “devastated”.

  “I had been waiting for my day in court — for accountability, for my voice to be heard, and for some sense of justice — since I was nine years old,” she said.

  “That opportunity has now been taken from me.

  “I am devastated, not just by what he did to me as a child, but by the fact he has escaped facing the consequences of his actions.

  “It feels like the system has failed me and the other victims in the end, and I’ve been left without closure.”

  Another alleged victim said she met Mr Bartle through their Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Rockingham, and that he began abusing her when she was 15.

  The 37-year-old first reported the alleged abuse to police in 2011.

  “The thing that made me want to press charges is that I have a teenage daughter myself and I wanted him to pay,” she said.

  “He took the coward’s way out.

  “I reckon it would not have happened if he wasn’t on bail.

  “I want women of all ages to be careful who you talk to. People can seem like the nicest people and turn out to be villains.”