State lockdown postpones Samuel Barlow’s sentencing for possessing child exploitation material

A teaching graduate caught with hundreds of serious child abuse images will need to wait longer to find out if he will be jailed for his heinous crimes.

A successful musician caught with a “significant” amount of child abuse material will need to wait longer to find out if he will be jailed.

Samuel David Barlow, 35, was due to be sentenced on Wednesday but several Adelaide District Court hearings were postponed because of the statewide lockdown.

Samuel Barlow will be sentenced at a later date for possessing child exploitation material. Photo: Facebook

Barlow was arrested in March, last year after police uncovered his shocking secret when searching his phone.

“The total number of images that were located on the defendant’s phone were significant,” the police prosecutor told the court last month.

“One hundred and ninety six of the images that were obtained from the defendant’s electronic device were classified as Category 4 images and 16 were classified as Category 5 images, which are the most serious of categories.”

Category 5 on the Oliver scale – which forms the basis on which child exploitation images and videos are graded – is where a child is subjected to sadism, torture, bestiality or humiliation.

Barlow, of Venus Bay, had previously pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material.

During further submissions on Monday, the court heard the home detention report noted that Barlow’s address was very close to a preschool.

“He (Barlow) informed me that preschool ceased function as an education institution in 2016,” Eugene McGee, for Barlow, said.

The court heard Barlow had previously completed a treatment program where he gained insight to his offending.

“He continues to have the support of his father and mother,” Mr McGee said.

The court heard a psychologist’s report said Barlow’s offending was caused by his significantly impacted social and sexual development.

“To compensate for these difficulties it led him to invest in a fantasy life involving inappropriate social and sexual connections, seeking self-gratification,” the report read.

The court heard the report said Barlow “does not pose an unacceptable level of risk of sexual harm towards children in the community”.

“That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t pose some degree of risk or it doesn’t mean to say that he’s solved his psychological problems … it just means the level of the risk is at a point where he can be in the community,” Judge Simon Stretton said.

Barlow who had become a “pariah” in his regional community because of the offending is a teaching graduate and accomplished guitarist.

The prosecution have pushed for jail time, while Mr McGee has asked for Barlow to be given a suspended sentence.

He will be sentenced at a later date.