Pedophile spy Jacob Donald Walsh says he deserves mercy due to autism, challenges sentence in the SA Court of Appeal

Australia’s worst convicted child sex offender says his autism should have warranted mercy in sentencing, and wants the state’s top court to slash his jail time.

Former RAAF intelligence expert, Sergeant Jacob Donald Walsh.

Australia’s worst-ever convicted child sex offender, who a judge said deserved 457 years’ jail, should have received a sentencing discount because of his autism but was wrongly denied, appeal papers claim.

Former RAAF spy Jacob Donald Walsh says his 22-year prison term, for 230 crimes, is the result of judicial errors and a lack of empathy for his neurological condition.

Walsh’s appeal comes as Australia’s top autism advocate has called for offenders to stop “demonising” the condition by using it to excuse their crimes and seek mercy.

Professor Andrew Whitehouse, from the University of WA and the Telethon Kids Institute, said autistic people were less, not more, likely to commit violent and sexual crimes.

“When people are making claims, the consequence of that is the (potential) demonising and marginalising of an already trod-upon group of people,” he said.

“These are not the characteristics of somebody with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, these are the characteristics of a criminal – and we need to make that distinction.”

Walsh, 35, of Blakeview stole the identity of his stepdaughter’s boyfriend to groom 15 girls, some as young as 10, over the internet for his own sexual gratification.

Walsh is serving a 22-year prison term, having pleaded guilty to an Australian-record 230 child abuse charges.

Many of his victims were suicidal, self-harming, in state care or survivors of past abuse, and he demanded sex acts while they were hospitalised, at school or significantly unwell.

After being caught by SA’s elite Joint Anti Child Protection Team, Walsh pleaded for mercy and blamed autism, internet addiction and military service for his crimes.

In sentencing, District Court Judge Joanne Tracey said the relevance of Walsh’s mental health had to be balanced against his “brazen and shocking disregard” for his victims.

In his appeal papers, Walsh’s counsel says Judge Tracey made an error of law by “wrongly applying” his autism to the sentence, and should have considered it a “mitigating factor”.

They further claim she “did not accept or failed to give enough weight” to other “mitigating” factors including his military service and status as “a model prisoner” since his arrest.

Walsh counsel says his contrition and lack of prior offending also warranted a more lenient sentence, claiming his current term is “manifestly excessive”.

They also claim Judge Tracey failed to properly calculate the sentencing discount Walsh earned through his guilty pleas to all 230 charges.

Finally, they claim Judge Tracey made errors of fact in her sentencing remarks, including wrongly stating Walsh had contacted his some of his victims while on bail.

The Court of Appeal has yet to set a hearing date for Walsh’s challenge.