Reece George sentenced for indecent filing and possessing child exploitation material

A former Port Lincoln panel beater who found child exploitation material as his “escapism”, has been sentenced for his crimes.

A Port Lincoln pedophile will spend almost half a decade behind bars after he filmed children in toilets, clothing stores, restaurants and the town jetty.

Reece George, 40, was found with a number of child exploitation material in his Port Lincoln home in both 2019 and 2021 that relate to bestiality, bondage of children as well as local children out in public.

During his sentencing on Monday, the District Court heard police were called to the Port Lincoln jetty after parents were concerned a man was filming children in their bathers in April 2019.

Reece George indecently filmed children in Kmart at Port Lincoln. Picture: Facebook

On April 17, police attended George’s home where they located a hard drive, a USB and a laptop.

On these devices, police located 1845 images and 55 videos, where some of the recordings showed parts of children’s bodies in circumstances that a person would not expect to be filmed.

The court heard George had filmed an adult and a child – who was aged between 4 and 5 – using the toilet inside the Kmart store in Port Lincoln.

Two years after their first attendance, police searched George’s home again in 2021, where they found him hiding in the laundry as well as a further eight USB sticks, seven of which were stuffed under the laundry trough.

Once again, police found further child exploitation material, including videos of children George “knew” and again children from the local area.

“The number and content of videos suggests a distinct focus and occupation with children’s bodies,” Judge Emily Telfer said.

“Police located a series of videos taken at a pizza restaurant where you recorded a child who was about four years of age, sitting on a stool.

“As she spun she spread her legs apart and you filmed her very closely.

“You appeared to have been undeterred by the fact that there were adults present in the child’s immediate vicinity.”

The court also heard George continued to film children in the Kmart store, immersing himself among children’s clothes as well as laying underneath shelves to film up children's skirts.

“Children bent down to look at items and you took that opportunity to film,” Judge Telfer said.

“Your conduct at Kmart also breached the pedophile restraining order that had been served to you.

“That order was to prevent you from loitering near children which is precisely what you were doing.”

George was also found trawling the internet and illicit websites in search of child exploitation material, which further breached those conditions.

“People like you create a demand (for child exploitation material),” Judge Telfer said.

George previously described his offending as a form of “escapism”.

The court heard George’s traumatic childhood, drug use and lack of continual employment contributed to his offending.

Judge Telfer sentenced George to six years and six months imprisonment with a non parole period of four years, backdated to January 10, 2022. The day George went into custody.