SA foster carer, scout leader with 700 ‘child abuse’ images wants permission to work with children

He engaged in perverted and illegal behaviour on the internet but says he’s safe around kids – and he’s just one of the people challenging work bans.

A foster carer and scout leader who role-played online as a “pre-pubescent young male who prostitutes himself” has challenged the decision to ban him from working with children.

The man is one of at least three South Australians who have sought Working With Children Check accreditation in the past 12 months following allegations of sexual or neglect offending.

The others are a woman whose five children were removed from her over neglect claims, and a tradesman accused of a “pattern of sexual offending” against two pre-teen girls.

The tradesman was acquitted of his charges following a trial, while the woman’s children are now adults and she has received significant support for her mental health issues.

The scout leader’s case, meanwhile, remains ongoing – but only because, in April this year, he was charged with a child sexual offending charge that has yet to be finalised.

State government figures show 3472 people have been banned from working with children since the WWCC scheme began operating in 2019.

That includes people whose accreditation was cancelled due to new information received under continuous monitoring of the 813,000 credentials currently active.

In 2024, The Advertiser revealed the number of people banned from working with children had risen from 270 to 750 over a four-year period.

Those bans may be challenged in the SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal, whose decisions may be appealed to the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

Persons lodging appeals are not named in publicly-accessible tribunal and court documents.

On Tuesday, NSW Premier Chris Minns said he would next month introduce a bill banning that state’s tribunal hearing those appeals.

That came after revelations more than two dozen people charged, convicted or alleged to have been involved in serious crimes had obtained a WWCC through appeals.

Successful SA appeals include that of a mother of five, 52, who wanted to volunteer for her church congregation but was banned because her children had been removed from her.

The Department for Human Services deemed her an “unacceptable risk” to children, but the SACAT overturned that decision because it failed to account for her renewed mental health.

The Department also deemed a tradesman and father of four an “unacceptable risk” as two girls, aged 19 and 12, had accused him of sexual offending.

The man argued he had been acquitted of the allegations by the District Court, and SACAT said the Department’s ban was neither “a correct or preferable decision”.

The foster carer and scout leader, meanwhile, sought a WWCC in 2019 while he was still being investigated over more than 700 images of alleged child abuse material on his computer.

The Court of Appeal heard those images ranged from “nudist” photos to close-up pictures of a female toddler in sexualised positions.

The Department alleged the man told Australian Federal Police he played as a “pre-pubescent young male who prostitutes himself” in the video game Second Life.

They further alleged the man had never informed Scouts SA of the police investigation.

The man argued the photos were innocent, that the close-ups were taken to record an incident of nappy rash, and that he had been denied procedural fairness.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the bulk of the man’s case, but said it could not finalise the case because he was charged, on April 7, 2025, with a child sexual offence.

That charge presumptively disqualified him from a WWCC, meaning his appeal could not be decided until the criminal case had concluded.

SA Human Services Nat Cook said: “We will continue to monitor changes in other jurisdictions carefully for any potential improvements.”

She said the Registrar of the Central Assessment Unit could “cancel a WWCC without providing natural justice – the opportunity to respond to an allegation before a WWCC is cancelled – where there is a high risk.”