Andrew Kevin Steel: Ex-OIR public servant jailed for child porn
A Brisbane creep formerly with a well-known State Government agency has been jailed for snaring vulnerable kids online. WARNING: Distressing content
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An awkward and maladjusted Brisbane public servant who sent hundreds of cajoling, aggressive, wheedling messages commissioning vile pornography from boys has been sentenced.
Keperra man Andrew Kevin Steel, 30, claimed in a letter to the court he was “not aroused” by the material he was seeking.
Steel, understood to be a former employee of the Office of Industrial Relations’ Electrical Safety Office, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court last week to 18 offences relating to the making, soliciting, possessing and distribution of child exploitation material.
The offences occurred between December 17, 2014 and June 28, 2017, when a search warrant was executed on his residence.
Commonwealth prosecutor Gabriel Perry told the court Steel’s offending consisted of “terribly coercive and manipulative behaviour to multiple child victims”.
Steel had a “powerful interest in acquiring videos of pubescent and pre-pubescent children defecating in their underwear,” Mr Perry said.
Steel found his male victims via YouTube, subsequently reaching out on a variety of platforms including email, Kik and Skype to commission the vile images and videos.
The most serious example, Mr Perry said, was against a child where he “employed a combination of threats, coercion and grooming behaviour”.
Steel was “prolific” in his contact with his child victims, employing a “great many email accounts”.
“The true extent of the amount of material shared cannot be known with precision,” Mr Perry said.
That was because a great deal of the shared content involved links to material stored on the “cloud’’ which could not be accessed by police.
Mr Perry said Steel’s instructions to his victims became so detailed, prescriptive and extensive they amounted to producing child exploitation material.
“Steel was relentless, he cajoled, pleaded, threatened and blackmailed,” Mr Perry said.
“It was particularly awful offending.”
In a letter tendered to the court, Steel claimed he felt “no sexual attraction” to the material he was commissioning, but this was not accepted by Judge Julie Dick, SC.
Defence counsel Michael Bonasia conceded this assertion was not borne out by the facts.
Mr Bonasia told the court his client’s interest in the material stemmed from bullying he suffered in high school, where Steel himself was forced to urinate and defecate in his underwear.
“It had a pseudo cathartic effect,” Mr Bonasia said.
Mr Bonasia told the court his client had already suffered the indignity of the charges, including being arrested on the floor of his office.
Quest Newspapers understands Steel remained employed at the OIR for several years after his arrest.
Judge Dick sentenced Steel to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for a period of four years after he has served eight months behind bars and upon entering into a $2000 good-behaviour bond.
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