Ben Waters bailed to live near a primary school while awaiting trial on child exploitation charges
An MP’s ex-adviser will live just 400m from a primary school while awaiting trial on child exploitation charges as his former UK employer vows to help police.
Police & Courts
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A former political staffer charged with child exploitation offences has been released on bail – and will be living just 400m from a West Hindmarsh school.
The Advertiser can also reveal police investigating Ben Waters’ alleged offending are receiving assistance from one of his former workplaces in the UK.
Redbridge District Council has pledged to co-operate with SA Police and the Australian Federal Police’s Joint Anti Child Exploitation Taskforce as inquiries continue.
Waters worked at the council from March 2016 to May 2019 as a policy assistant to an executive leader.
He left that role to return to Adelaide and take up a position with Labor MP Nat Cook, from which he was fired following his arrest.
“We have notified our local authority designated officer who will liaise with police on behalf of the council,’’ a Redbridge council spokesman said.
“We are shocked by the news of these charges and, of course, stand ready to co-operate fully with any investigation.”
Waters, 38, has yet to plead to one count of producing child abuse material through a carriage service and two counts of aggravated possession of child exploitation material.
He is further charged with two counts of possession of child exploitation material.
Waters, formerly the senior political Adviser to Labor MP Nat Cook, was arrested two weeks ago alongside a senior correctional services officer.
He has worked across several Labor MPs’ offices as an Adviser for the past decade, and as a campaigner in London for the UK Labour Party for 3 ½ years.
The duo’s arrests were prompted by investigations into HIV-positive paedophile Jadd William Brooker, who is about to be charged with 100 further offences.
On Tuesday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court released Waters on $1000 home detention bail, to live with his mother and sister in West Hindmarsh.
The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, expressed concern that the address was 400m away from a school.
However, Commonwealth prosecutors told the court they did not object to the address and believed home detention conditions would provide adequate remedy.
Judge Hribal ordered Waters not be released from the court’s cells until he had been fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.
She also banned him from having any contact with persons under the age of 18, from using the internet and from deleting or altering his online search history.
Waters will face court again in May.
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