‘I am deeply sorry’: Craig Silvey pens 9,000-word apology for child exploitation material offences

The children’s author says he was abused as a child as he begins seven-month sentence for possessing depraved material

The disgraced best-selling author Craig Silvey has revealed he was abused as a child in a 9,000-word apology published after he was jailed for child exploitation offences.

The young adult novelist was sentenced on Monday to seven months’ imprisonment, after being charged in January and subsequently pleading guilty to distributing and possessing depraved child exploitation material.

The 44-year-old writer posted an article on his Substack titled “My Apology”.

He said that throughout his life he had always been able to find the right words, “but articulating the depth of my contrition and the enormity of my remorse feels beyond my aptitude for language”.