Transgender TikTok Personality Found Guilty of Exploiting Children and Committing Indecent Assault
The mother of the children said, ‘You can wear any mask you like, but the truth is out and everybody knows who you are, finally.’
A social media personality boasting over 34,000 fans on the social media platform TikTok has pleaded guilty in an Adelaide court to a range of child sexual abuse charges.
Presenting himself online as a “proud transgender woman,” Rachel Queen Burton who is 44 and resides in Coolalinga, Northern Territory, committed repeated acts of sexual abuse upon two young children and inflicted emotional trauma on another.
The Adelaide Advertiser reported various offences were committed by Mr. Burton in regional South Australia in 2019 before he became well-known on TikTok. He was arrested and charged with child abuse and exploration offences in October 2022.
Mr. Burton initially denied the allegations, before pleading guilty at a later hearing to aggravated counts of producing and possessing child exploitation material, gross indecency, and indecent assault.
After offending, Mr. Burton began identifying as female and built a substantial following on TikTok on the back of videos that focused on travel and cosmetic appearance, and trumpeted his pivot into the transgender community.
After the children’s mother learned of the offending, she fled along with her children, only to be stalked by Mr. Burton in an act that pushed the family into homelessness.
‘Gross, Phony,’ Court Hears
On Feb. 6, In the Adelaide District Court, the two child victims, an older sibling and their mother read out impact statements that detailed the depravity of Mr. Burton’s offending. Throughout the statements, Mr. Burton was often seen in tears as he watched on via a video link from a men’s prison.
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“You are a gross, phony, self-indulgent thing who has cheated my children out of so much, and took it away from them without care,” the children’s mother said.
The court heard of the “relentless” fear and psychological torment inflicted by Mr. Burton which led to all the victims experiencing ongoing nightmares.
The younger victim’s statement illustrated their sense of anger and being trapped, while the older sibling suffered emotional trauma despite not being directly sexually abused.
“In your online rants, you showed no remorse for your bad behaviour, all while knowing what you had done … getting an audience for your false life was far more important,” said the children’s mother.
“You can wear any mask you like, but the t….
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