SA judge says teacher Michael Anthony Bocchino was ‘two-faced’, used child pornography at night while smoking cannabis

UPDATED: A respected Adelaide teacher who smoked cannabis while downloading child pornography has been jailed for at least 16 months.

A RESPECTED Adelaide teacher had “two faces” and was, by night, a cannabis-smoking paedophile who perpetuated the traumatic abuse of children, a judge says.

Michael Anthony Bocchino has admitted accessing, viewing and then deleting thousands of images of child pornography over the past six years.

Today, District Court Judge Paul Muscat jailed the former Marryatville and Adelaide high school teacher for 33 months, with a 16-month non-parole period.

He said Bocchino’s conduct was made all the more heinous by his teaching career and excellent standing in the community, and too serious to warrant a suspended sentence.

“Bocchino is a man who had two faces — he had a public face and a private face,” he said.

“To those who knew him in public, he was held in high regard (as) a very caring, insightful, intelligent man and a great teacher ... that’s all now been thrown out the window, permanently.

“I would have thought, of all people in the community, teachers would know of the trauma that will flow on to children who are abused.

“It just beggars belief that, while being in that position (as a teacher) he was contributing to the abuse and trauma of innocent children.”

Bocchino, 59, had previously pleaded guilty to one basic count and one aggravated count of possessing child pornography.

The offences occurred at Valley View on January 27 this year — Bocchino resigned on February 13.

Today Kris Handshin, for Bocchino, said police recovered 1800 video files from the temporary memory cache of his client’s computer.

Of those, investigators viewed 600 and determined at least 27 contained child exploitation material, some featuring children as young as three.

Mr Handshin said his client accepted he had “perpetuated the insidious abuse of children”, causing him a “very pervasive sense of shame, guilt and embarrassment”.

He said his client had led a law-abiding life until 2008 when, after a series of personal issues, he began downloading pornography while smoking cannabis.

Judge Muscat said the evidence pointed to a “clear pattern” of offending behaviour.

“Bocchino would download in the evening — and it doesn’t matter if he was under the effect of cannabis, in my view — for the specific purpose of sexual arousal,” he said.

“The following morning he was overcome with guilt, shame and disgust and would delete the material.”

Mr Handshin said Bocchino had taken steps to rehabilitate including counselling and treatment programs, but Judge Muscat said that had happened “only because he was arrested”.

However, he agreed there was “no doubt” Bocchino now had “considerable insight” into his crimes and was unlikely to reoffend, despite a diagnosis of pedophilic disorder.

“You were a good man who made bad choices,” he told Bocchino.

“You have already paid for those bad choices and you will continue to pay for them.

“You must not let that get in the way of your journey toward full rehabilitation.”