7NEWS Spotlight

Hundreds of known child predators are right now roaming free across Australia, despite police having proof they have communicated with and transferred money to one of the world's most prolific child traffickers. 

Why are these known offenders still walking our streets, and what's being done to address Australia's worsening child sex offender crisis? 

In a special investigation airing this Sunday at 9.00pm on Seven and 7plus, 7NEWS Spotlight exposes a list of 395 Australians suspected of participating in a disturbing new trend: directing the abuse of children overseas from their homes in Australia.   

7NEWS Spotlight's Liam Bartlett goes undercover with an extraordinary group called Destiny Rescue who track down and expose child sex traffickers. 

Made up of former detectives and special forces operatives, the group's goal is to rescue children sold into sex trafficking. They gave 7NEWS Spotlight's cameras exclusive access as they orchestrate raids with local enforcement agencies. 

Destiny Rescue operative and former homicide detective Matt Valentine said: "I've seen more Australians involved in crimes against children than I have of any other nationality. 

"It's in our Australian backyard. We need to be very, very concerned." 

Back home, 7NEWS Spotlight tracks down one of the 395 men on the client list – a grandad and businessman living in regional Australia – who is free and will never spend a day in prison, even after he directed the abuse of a little girl. 

Psychologist Peter Ashkar tells 7NEWS Spotlight that offenders who use the internet to commit their crimes overseas are posing a real risk to Australian kids: "That type of offender will almost certainly use whatever opportunity that they have to commit a similar type of sexual offense against a similar type of victim in person, if they have the opportunity to do so." 

Liam Bartlett said: "Australian men are fuelling a global trade in child sexual abuse, and they're doing it from the comfort of their own homes in suburbs around the country. The experts tell us one in every two will eventually want to have physical contact with a child in their local community and that is truly disturbing. 

"Destiny Rescue has done the hard work: identifying offenders, rescuing children, handing over names. But good police work means nothing if it doesn't lead to jail time. Letting these men walk free sends a chilling message: that child abuse, even directed from afar, is somehow forgivable. It's not."

One in 20 Australians now live with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder , and more than half are on medication -including hundreds of thousands of school-aged children.

On Sunday 7News Spotlight examines the fast-growing disorder with leading experts, families, and educators to unpack the surge in diagnoses, and speaks to doctors and sceptics who are sounding the alarm over prescription rates.

Professor Jon Jureidini, a psychiatrist and outspoken critic of the ADHD diagnosis, told 7News Spotlight: "ADHD is put forward as a simple explanation for a complex set of problems.

"It's very easy to become a diagnoser of ADHD, and it's also very lucrative. So, we have to be a little bit sceptical about the motivations of people who set up specialist practices to diagnose ADHD."

Ashlee Mullany also takes an exclusive look inside a school unlike any other in Australia, where almost 40% of students have ADHD.

"ADHD doesn't mean you're a Martian or anything. You're still a person," said one student.

Professor David Coghill, a leading world expert in ADHD, told 7News Spotlight: "Most of the time the information about ADHD on social media isn't accurate. Only around 30% of the posts were actually based on facts."

Ashlee Mullany said: "Among the billions of posts about ADHD on social media, we take a closer look at one psychiatrist who has become an influencer, partnering with a drug manufacturer for paid posts about ADHD."

Also this Sunday Michael Usher goes inside the Maclean brothers' record-breaking row across the Pacific Ocean - with exclusive video diaries from their time on board.

For nearly 140 days, Scottish siblings Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan filmed the highs and lows of their 14,000-kilometre journey from Peru to Cairns. From giant waves to sleep deprivation and a few near disasters, cameras caught almost every thrilling moment as they set a new world record for the fastest human powered crossing of the Pacific.

Now back in Sydney, the brothers' look back on their incredible journey, a raw and unforgettable adventure.

"It's incredible what your body can do when you put the work in," said Jamie Maclean.

In a special joint investigation with The Nightly, 7News Spotlight goes inside the crash that claimed Chris "Willow" Wilson's life, revealing the extraordinary lengths to which Outback Wrangler Matt Wright went to hide the truth.

Michael Usher said: "He's been celebrated as an outback hero, but who's the real Matt Wright?

"What happened in court was only part of the story. In partnership with The Nightly, we've obtained new evidence and allegations about Matt Wright's conduct – details the public has never heard."

7News Spotlight reveals exclusive new details about how Northern Territory Police brought down this croc cowboy and how they exposed the full extent of Wright's alleged attempts to obstruct investigations by moving interstate, trying to avoid surveillance and attempting to manipulate the destroyed chopper's flight records.

Speaking exclusively to 7News Spotlight, Northern Territory Police Detective Senior Sergeant, Corey Borton, said: "Mr Wright has his online persona and then there's the way he acts when he thinks no one else is looking."

7NEWS Spotlight also exposes an allegation that Wright tried to bribe tourists and reveals exclusive images that appear to show the TV star killing a protected species.

The Nightly's investigative reporter Kristin Shorten, who has been covering this case since the start, said: "For the first time, we can reveal the extraordinary story of how Darwin detectives uncovered the criminal conduct of Matt Wright and his associates after the fatal crash that killed one mate and left another paraplegic.

"Following Matt Wright's guilty verdicts, Northern Territory Police granted us unprecedented access to key investigators and evidence, allowing us to reveal – for the first time – how their covert operation unfolded and the ‘red flags' that brought the ‘Outback Wrangler' unstuck."

It was one of the darkest days in Australian journalism – the murder of five young television reporters and crew in East Timor, caught in the crossfire of a clandestine invasion. Now, 50 years on, 7NEWS returns to Balibo to honour their legacy and speak to the families still fighting for justice. 

In a powerful special report airing this Sunday at 9.40pm on Seven and 7plus, 7NEWS Reporter Nick McCallum travels to East Timor to mark the anniversary of the deaths of Seven and Nine journalists Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters, who were killed by Indonesian troops in 1975. 

The program features exclusive interviews with the journalists' families, East Timor President José Ramos-Horta, and experts who reveal how the Australian Government knew what was coming and chose to remain silent. 

Evan Shackleton, son of Greg Shackleton, told 7NEWS: "I have an overwhelming pride for all those men that were doing their job and made a decision knowing that there were dangers involved to complete the job that they were sent there for, which was to find the truth." 

Nick McCallum revisits the house where the journalists spent their final night and speaks to those who have turned tragedy into legacy. 

He said: "Standing inside the house where the Balibo Five spent their final night, you can't help but feel the weight of what happened here. It's quiet now, but the echoes of that day still linger. 

"We've had the privilege of speaking with the families, some for the first time in decades, and hearing their reflections on what justice and legacy mean today."