Former government IT engineer Songnan Bao ‘didn’t know’ child abuse illegal in Australia, court hears

A former Human Services Department worker and father told a therapist he downloaded 8000 child abuse images because he didn’t know it was illegal in Australia, a court has heard.

A former software engineer for the Department of Human Services used his IT skills to download and back up more than 8000 child abuse files because he “didn’t think it was illegal in Australia”, a court has heard.

Father of two and former government employee Songnan Bao faced the South Australian District Court on Monday morning after pleading guilty to one count of knowingly possessing child exploitation material.

Bao, now 42, was silent as his lawyer Casey Isaacs told the court his client had “no sound reason, other than habit” for downloading 8338 files of child exploitation material across a “significant period” of time.

“It’s accepted that Mr Bao was caught with some 8338 images found across two devices,” Mr Isaacs said.

“The first was a PC with 1047 images, and the second was a hard drive where there was 6991. It is accepted that the images are of the most serious category and indeed they were obtained over a significant period of time.

Former government software developer Songnan Bao pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material.

“He downloaded them onto his PC, and as was his habit, he would often categorise and back up that material, having been heavily involved in the IT industry.

“It wasn’t something that he was continuously going back and looking at but he says the behaviour was ongoing in the sense of the downloading.

“This occurred in batch downloading – links he would click on that would download them in bulk and my instructions are that not everything was looked at individually.

“The search terms related to young girls, less than 18, but not necessarily young children, although it is accepted he obtained pictures of young children.”

Mr Isaacs said a psychological report had indicated Bao had an interest in “pubescent girls, not pre-pubescent girls”.

Bao, who was born in China, was working as an IT engineer when he was arrested and charged in December last year, but Mr Isaacs told the court his client had lost his job when his offending came to light.

“He was in custody for 35 days, but since being released he’s been required to live separate from his wife and children,” Mr Isaacs said.

Songnan Bao worked as an IT engineer for the Dept. of Human Services.

“While (a psychiatrist) concludes he meets the diagnostic criteria for paedophillia, he’s interested in pubescent girls, not younger. She found he was vulnerable to developing interest in this material due to years of pornography use which caused him to be desensitised to what a normal person would consider to be abhorrent.”

Mr Isaacs said his client should remain in the community to continue seeking help to rehabilitate, however the prosecutor told Judge Carmen Matteo Bao had told one counsellor he thought his actions were legal.

“I note (in a report) that Mr Bao also attempts to minimise his engagement with the material when he claimed he did not know it was illegal in Australia to download and view this kind of material,” the prosecutor said.

He also said Bao was “in denial” about his offending, according to the report, and should be jailed.

Judge Matteo will sentence Bao later this year.