A controversial book penned by a marketing executive from a Christian charity has sparked a legal battle due to its unsettling content. The novel, written by 34-year-old Lauren Ashley Mastrosa under the pseudonym Tori Woods, allegedly includes “sexual stuff” involving a young child, according to a police officer assigned to review the material.

Mastrosa is currently contesting child abuse charges linked to her book, titled Daddy’s Little Toy. The Sydney-based author distributed a pre-release version of the novel to 21 advance readers in March, which subsequently led to a complaint being lodged with the New South Wales Police Department.

During the investigation, the officer highlighted a particular passage early in the book that challenged the claim that the character Lucy was consistently depicted as an 18-year-old. The passage, narrated by a character named Arthur, describes his desire for a woman as sweet and innocent as Lucy was at the age of three.

“It sounds like he wants a three-year-old to me,” the officer remarked, underscoring the troubling nature of the text.

Arthur wanted a woman as sweet and as nice as Lucy was when she was a three-year-old, he said.

“It sounds like he wants a three-year-old to me,” the officer said.

“There is sexual stuff in the book that starts when she is three.”

Mastrosa was seen sitting beside her husband shaking her head in court as Sen Const Matson argued the book portrayed Lucy at different ages.

The officer also said a part where the fictional toy store worker was being spanked was an example of assault.

He conceded any references to sexual intercourse or touching only took place in sections of Daddy’s Little Toy where the main character was 18.

He also said police received no formal training in classifying child abuse material in line with commonwealth legislation.

In a recorded interview to police played to the court, Mastrosa rejected claims her book contained any child abuse material.

“Hell no, that’s not it,” she told officers.

She said she had completely shut down any further publication of the novel.

“This is not something that I want out there if it is incriminating unintentionally,” she told police.

Only 21 people had received digital copies of the book and no physical copies had been posted, she said.

Magistrate Bree Chisholm heard that police officers had not read the novel when they arrested Mastrosa.

Instead, they had acted on a Crime Stoppers report by someone who themselves had not read the entire book.

Cunneen said her client had no criminal history when she was arrested.

Police had been unable to find a skerrick of child abuse material other than that allegedly contained within the novel on the mobile phones and laptops seized during a search of Mastrosa’s Quakers Hill home, she said.