Child sex offender in court for breaching suspended sentence

A convicted child sex offender’s recent activity thwarted measures to ensure the community was able to keep track of him, and was protected from “any deviancy or any reversion to deviancy”, a judge has said. Read what else was said.

A 47-year-old unemployed Bundaberg man faced the district court on Tuesday after breaching terms of a suspended sentence handed down for child sex crimes.

The court heard that the man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victims, was originally sentenced in the Bundaberg District Court on March 7, 2019, after pleading guilty to one count of indecent treatment of a child under 16 who was a lineal descendant and one count of indecent treatment of a child under 16, under 12 who was a lineal descendant.

He had also pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child exploitation material and to possessing child exploitation material which he had kept on eight different devices.

The man was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, suspended after six, for an operational period of three months.

Crown prosecutor Carla Ahern told the court the father had his two sons visiting his home when he showed them both adult pornography and child exploitation material for about 30 minutes.

On May 9, 2022, he was convicted and fined $900 in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to failing to comply with reporting obligations after he opened accounts on TikTok and Instagram between February 1 and April 6, 2022.

He also created an email address that was not reported to police.

A man who subjected his children to watching adult porn and child exploitation material has breached his suspended sentence by creating social media accounts that he didn’t report to police.

Ms Ahern told the court the offending was “less serious” than his original offences, but not trivial because he had failed to comply with his reporting duties.

Defence barrister Nick Larter said the man suffered from autism and Asperger’s, was unemployed and had positively engaged with programs.

Judge Michael Burnett told the court the defendant’s offending had been “serious” and that his original sentence had been somewhat lenient as it took into account his intellectual disabilities.

“It was, in my view, quite a generous sentence,” he said.

The court heard the man had successfully completed probation and was now receiving help from the NDIS.

Judge Burnett reiterated the importance of sex offenders reporting their activities when directed to do so.

“There is a reporting regime in place for sex offenders for a very good reason,” he said.

“It is important that the community are able to keep a track of you and follow what you're doing in order to ensure that the community is protected from any deviancy or any reversion to deviancy on your part.”

The man had three months added to his suspended sentence, which will now expire on November 1, 2022.