Sydney author guilty of child abuse after book, Daddy’s Little Toy, depicted adult roleplaying as toddler

A Christian author behind an “undeniably offensive” toddler-roleplaying novel could face time behind bars after the book was found to contain child abuse material.Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, 34, wrote Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it through an online pre-release in March.The book is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who roleplays as a toddler with Arthur, an older man who is her father’s best friend.Mastrosa was charged after the book sparked outrage and on Tuesday was found guilty of three child abuse material charges.“The defendant has written a book that sexually objectifies children,” magistrate Bree Chisholm said.“The reader is left with a description that creates the visual image in one’s mind of an adult male engaging in sexual activity with a young child.”Lauren Mastrosa issued a pre-release of the novel to 21 advance readers in March before a complaint about its content was made to police. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPThe 34-year-old sat with her husband in a packed courtroom at Blacktown Local Court as the magistrate read out details from the 210-page novel.The book’s cover is coloured pink pastel with the title spelled out in children’s alphabet blocks, the court heard.A myriad of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book include age gap, daddy kink, infantilisation, physical abuse, profanity, sexually explicit scenes and slut-shaming.Lucy’s genitals are described in detail, as is the sexual activity she engages in with Arthur while pretending to be a toddler.Chisholm - who sat down to read the entire book - found the female protagonist was implied to be a child despite repeated references to her being 18.In the novel, Arthur refers to Lucy as “baby girl” or “my little girl”.The teen is also described engaging in child-like behaviour such as having tantrums, needing to be bathed, wearing nappies and playing with children’s toys.She is also described using child-like language such as “wee wee”.“Importantly, those descriptions and language are used in the portions of the book to describe a character similar to a young child when the sexual activity is occurring,” Chisholm said.“The language is repeated again and again.”The book invited the reader to imagine the very thing that child abuse material legislation prohibited, she found.As such, a reasonable reader would find the book undeniably offensive, the magistrate said in finding Mastrosa guilty of possessing, disseminating and producing child abuse material.The 34-year-old did not react when the judgment was handed down but sometimes sat with her eyes closed as Chisholm read out her findings.In a pre-release, digital copies of the novel were issued to advance readers.A Crime Stoppers complaint led police to find 16 hard copies of the book at Mastrosa’s home while executing a search warrant in March.She wore sunglasses and did not speak to reporters as she left court with her husband and lawyer on Tuesday.She remains on bail and will be sentenced on 28 April. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380.