Former public servant Stewart Iain Berry pleads not guilty to, and will stand trial over, three-year allegations of child sex abuse
A top public servant will stand trial for allegedly abusing a teenager over three years – and arguing, with his husband, over which of them owned the boy.
Police & Courts
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A senior public servant will stand trial accused of paying for sex with a teenager – with whom his husband had an “uncontrollable obsession” – and then filming and posting it online.
On Tuesday, former Correctional Services officer and alleged paedophile syndicate member Stewart Iain Berry pleaded not guilty to a second set of child abuse offending.
Mr Berry is already set to stand trial alongside his husband, Matthew Campbell, for allegedly filming children undressing in their home using a hidden camera.
He will now stand a second trial accused of abusing a boy who was also, prosecutors allege, the subject of an argument between the couple as to which of them the child “belonged” to.
If convicted, Mr Berry faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Mr Berry, 37, of Salisbury Park, held a senior Department for Correctional Services position when he was arrested in March 2021 alongside SA Labor staffer Benjamin John Waters.
Waters has been sentenced but Mr Berry and Mr Campbell, 38, of Salisbury, have denied any wrongdoing arising from investigations into HIV-positive predator Jadd William Brooker.
On Tuesday, Mr Berry’s counsel entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child between November 2017 and November 2020.
They also denied he had incited a child to commit an indecent act, and committed two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 17, during that time.
Finally, they pleaded not guilty to two further counts of having possessed child exploitation material at both Mr Berry’s Salisbury Park and Port Lincoln homes.
The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, remanded Mr Berry on continuing bail to face the District Court in December, when a trial date will be set.
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