Peter Allen Ferguson pleads guilty to breaching child sex offender reporting laws

A child sex offender has returned to court after police found several mobile phones and an email he had not reported to authorities.

Peter Allen Ferguson, 63, pleaded guilty at Gympie Magistrates Court to five counts of failing to report as required under child protection laws.

A convicted child sex offender has avoided returning to jail by the skin of his teeth after being caught with several mobile phones and a new email account he had failed to report to authorities.

Peter Allen Ferguson was caught with the devices by police when they carried out a compliance check on the 63-year-old at his Widgee home at the end of last year.

Gympie Magistrates Court was told police found a new mobile phone with a SIM card installed, three others which did not have a card (one was smashed), and a new email account during the check.

None of these had been reported to authorities, as Ferguson was required to do, owing to a history of offending in Queensland and New South Wales.

This included possessing child pornography in 2010, loitering near a public place as a child sex offender in 2013 and exposing himself to a child at a Toowoomba playground in 2014.

Peter Allen Ferguson, 63, pleaded guilty at Gympie Magistrates Court to five counts of failing to report as required under child protection laws.

The latter crime landed him in jail for one year, the court heard.

Defence lawyer Chris Anderson told the court the 63-year-old, who worked as a painter until his 2014 jailing and was unmarried with no children, was “not a terribly sophisticated man” and “careless” with his phones, frequently breaking them.

The new email account was “rarely used” and had been set up by the person Ferguson bought one of the phones from, the court was told.

A psychology report tendered to the courts said Ferguson suffered from bipolar, anxiety and anger, but there was no official diagnosis of these.

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Ferguson was sentenced at Gympie magistrates Court to nine months’ jail, with the sentence to be wholly suspended for three years.

Acting Magistrate Raelene Ellis said the fact no illegal material had been found on the devices had saved Ferguson from returning to prison.

“If there had been anything unlawful (found) I would absolutely be sending you to prison,” Ms Ellis said.

“You have a history of very serious offending against children.”

Ferguson, who pleaded guilty to five counts of failing to report as required under child protection laws, was sentenced to a suspended nine-month jail term.

The jail term will remain hanging over this head for the next three years.