Corey Johnston tells his court he didn’t know his father had child exploitation material as well

The son of the Oakden whistleblower was in possession of “horrendous” exploitation material depicting young children and infants.

Corey Johnston next to his lawyer Michael Woods leaving Adelaide Magistrates Court in January. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The son of the Oakden whistleblower was found in possession of “horrendous” exploitation material depicting children and infants, a court has heard.

Corey Johnston, 25, appeared in the District Court on Thursday where the court heard child exploitation material was found on his phone after police went to arrest his father at their Mannum home.

Johnston was charged with one count of possessing child exploitation in May last year and later pleaded guilty in January.

Johnston was charged at the same time as his father, Stewart Johnston, who has also pleaded guilty to the same offence.

Michael Woods, for Johnston, said his client should be handed a suspended sentence as a result of his young age and the low number of files located on the devices.

He also said the files were kept on a phone in a folder labelled “keep” – which he said he believes is a default folder on Android and Google devices.

Prosecutor Samara El Achkar said prosecution would be confirming whether this was a default setting.

Mr Woods said Mr Johnston started watching pornography at about 14 years old before “he progressed to younger material”.

“Some of those files, they are sporadically from 2017 – he was only 18 or 19,” he said.

“While we’ve got a relatively small amount of images, they’re also spread over a relatively wide period, it’s not someone who’s downloading 10,000 files.

“There’s bits here and there’s bits there … a total of 69 (images).

Corey Johnston arrives at Adelaide Magistrates Court in January. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“While the nature of the material is horrendous, it is the higher end, we accept that.”

Mr Woods said Mr Johnston had “no idea” that his father also watched child pornography.

“When the police arrived, and he was interviewed, he wholly accepts that he minimised in the interview,” he said.

“Your Honour might understand, the police had come there, they’re at the door for your dad, they’re looking for your dad and you get asked about your own phone. You minimise it, no time to reflect.”

Stewart Johnston was one of the people who blew the whistle on the abuse scandal at the Oakden aged mental health care service after his mother – Corey’s grandmother – alleged she had been repeatedly abused by staff.

Mr Woods said Johnston and his father had seen the collapse of their business, only months before their arrests.

“At the end of 2022 he went to start a business with his father, who was described as the Oakden whistleblower, who is also facing charges in respect of similar material,” he said.

“They wanted to be business advocates for people in aged care, that business didn’t go well,

“It collapsed in January 2023 only a couple of months before this offending in May 2023.”

Prosecutor Samara El Achkar said it is her position that a term of imprisonment is warranted.

“Your Honour can see the material in this matter is of a serious nature involving … young children and infants,” she said.

“Those search terms (located on devices) I would suggest could indicate the defendant was aware that what he was doing was wrong and perhaps that he was curious of the ramifications if he was caught.”

Ms El Achkar said files located on the phone were created in 2017 and another “three written files” were also found on another device.

Johnston will be sentenced next month.