Child porn charges reveal teacher’s hidden secret

GRAPHIC WARNING: For 38 years, this teacher hid a secret from his family, friends and colleagues but police charges against him led to it being revealed.

Former high school teacher Nathan Neil Ramm, 39, leaves Rockhampton court house after being sentenced to 18 months prison, wholly suspended and operational for three years, along with 18 months probation for charges of distributing and possessing child porn. Pictured with Ramm is his barrister Michael Copley (left) and solicitor Grant Cagney.

A FORMER high school teacher's secret was revealed after he was charged for distributing and possessing child porn.

Nathan Neil Ramm, 39, pleaded guilty today in Rockhampton District Court to one count each of distributing and possessing child exploitation material (CEM).

The court heard Ramm, who was a member of many associations, including a local State Emergency Service branch and an Aussie rules club, was a highly regarded and respected member of The Cathedral College staff and community.

Defence barrister Michael Copley said he kept his secret so well hidden that none of his colleagues suspected.

He said they even went as far as setting him up on dates with women because they thought he was lonely and should be with someone.

Ramm revealed his secret to his family after he was charged in November for distributing CEM on October 21, 2019, and possessing over 700 CEM files on November 2 when police raided his Allenstown house as part of a Taskforce Argos operation.

His secret was he was homosexual and had been confused about his sexuality since he was eight years old and involved in a homosexual incident.

Mr Copley said Ramm revealed this information to his psychologist, who he first started seeing within a month of the charges being laid and had since attended 14 sessions to work on how to deal with the viewing of CEM, which the psychologist described as a habit rather than an addiction, and his moving forward in life after revealing his sexuality.

Former high school teacher Nathan Neil Ramm, 39, leaves Rockhampton court house after being sentenced to 18 months prison, wholly suspended and operational for three years, along with 18 months probation for charges of distributing and possessing child porn.

The former IT and mathematics teacher started looking at CEM when he was 14 or 15, looking at children his own age in the illegal images.

Mr Copley said his client viewed the material "off and on" throughout the years, trying to ignore it as much as possible.

The CEM distribution involved three videos distributed through a peer-to-peer program.

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Crown prosecutor Samantha O'Rourke said Ramm declared CEM on his computer when police searched his house, telling them he obtained CEM through the peer-to-peer networks.

She said he told them he would go weeks without downloading material.

Ms O'Rourke said 491 files matched Interpol's International Child Sexual Exploitation baseline.

Interpol's system replaced Queensland's former system which used the COPINE scale of categorising images and videos in the a scale category system.

Ms O'Rourke said under the old system, the 491 images and videos fell into categories one to five - mostly depicting penetration of children, all pre-pubescent.

She said 290 were identified as material where clues for investigation purposes.

Ms O'Rourke said 15 others were related, but not CEM.

She said one of the videos depicted a five-year-old boy being anally penetrated by an adult.

Ms O'Rourke said another was of an eight-year-old boy being tied up and penetrated.

Mr Copley said the videos shared were of a small quantity.

"The images are bad," he said.

"There are serious, serious consequences."

Mr Copley said his client cancelled his teacher registration in New South Wales and Victoria after his arrest, but only the state can cancel it in Queensland.

He said Ramm taught at TCC from 2003 until the end of 2019, progressing through the ranks at the college, being made an IT co-ordinator in 2009 and Academic Dean of IT in 2012.

Mr Copley said between 2013-2019, he was on the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority Review Panel for IT and he was chairman of the panel.

He said Ramm's community involvement included joining the SES when he was 17 until 2002 and played Aussie rules reserve grade between 2007-2009.

Between 2002 and 2019, Ramm was involved in the Business Educators' Association of Queensland Inc; the Queensland Society for Information Technology in Education; and the Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Mr Copley said Ramm also tutored students outside school hours.

He said on top of losing his career which he loved, Ramm will further be punished by automatically being a registered sex offender for five years and having to leave Rockhampton because of knowing many people.

Mr Copley tendered references from three people - two of which are TCC teachers (Michael Anderson and Tim Murphy).

He said the two teachers were in the back of the court in support of Ramm, along with Ramm's elderly parents.

"They view my client as fundamental to the school community," Mr Copley said.

"He was a respected teacher.

"They are people who are in that occupation and here to support a man who was in that occupation."

The barrister said his client explained he never sought help for his 'habit' as he feared the health authorities were required by law to report the illegal activity.

Mr Copley said Ramm told his psychologist he no longer views that type of material and he was in a happy homosexual relationship.

"His colleagues at school didn't know about (his sexuality)," he said.

"They arranged for him to go on dates with women."

Mr Copley said Ramm's colleagues worried Ramm was lonely and felt he should 'have someone'.

"It was periods in his life when he was lonely that the habit came back," he said.

Mr Copley said Ramm's psychologist believed he was unlikely to reoffend.

Judge Michael Burnett said there was "plainly quite a deal of degradation in the material".

He said despite Ramm's inner turmoils about his sexuality, he was quite functional in the community.

"Little would be achieved by sending you to a short period of prison which would be only two or three months," Judge Burnett said.

He ordered Ramm to an 18-month prison term, wholly suspended and operational for three years, along with 18 months probation conditional he attend psychiatric treatment as directed.