Primary school teacher James Treasure, 40, jailed for making child exploitation material

A primary school teacher has been jailed for making sex tapes with a blow-up doll wearing a uniform from his school and filming children at a Sunshine Coast beach. But what he did with pictures of children also came to a Queensland court’s attention.

A VICTORIAN primary teacher who made sex tapes with a blow-up doll wearing a uniform from the school he taught at and filmed children at a Sunshine Coast beach using a secret camera watch has been jailed for four years.

In other lewd incidents, the 40-year-old man made home videos where he stuck photographs of children he taught to the face of the blow-up doll.

The man also super-imposed images of himself and children into other sexually explicit films, a Queensland court was today told.

James Treasure came to the attention of police after parents reported his suspicious behaviour at Noosa Main Beach in July 2018, where they saw him following two sisters aged 10 and 12 on the beach and holding his watch up toward them.

He earlier this year pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to two charges of making child exploitation material and one count of possessing the material.

Treasure was on Monday sentenced to four years’ jail for making the child porn and three years’ behind bars for possessing the material.

The court heard when Treasure was arrested he told police he was making the videos for “sexual gratification”.

James Treasure came to the attention of police after parents reported his suspicious behaviour at Noosa Main Beach in July 2018, where they saw him following two sisters aged 10 and 12 on the beach. Picture: Lachie Millard

When police raided the 40-year-old’s hotel room, they found 13 videos taken up children’s skirts at tourist hotspots at the Sunshine Coast including on Hastings St, a Big W store at Noosa Village and others filmed at the popular family spot — Eumundi Markets.

The court heard he had filmed up kids skirts from a camera he had fixed in the tongue of his shoe.

When police seized Treasure’s computers they found 3900 images of horrific child-porn, including a video that featured a baby wearing a nappy and young girls crying while being forced to participate in sex acts, the court heard.

Detectives also found three watches with spy cameras and a range of electronic equipment during the search.

The court heard the two girls who knew they were being filmed at the beach gave statements to police saying they were “scared” when they realised what was happening.

Defence barrister Adrian Braithwaite told the court Treasure had a pedophilic disorder, according to a psychological report.

He said the teacher had been “caught red handed doing abhorrent things” and had begun treatment at his own expense from behind bars.

“That career is of course destroyed by his own doing, he’s handed in his resignation and he will no longer work as a teacher again,” Mr Braithwaite said.

Judge Anthony Rafter said Treasure had “prayed on young children”.

“It is morally reprehensible and abhorrent,” he said.

Treasure, who has served 444 days on remand, will be eligible to apply for parole on November 5.