Peter John Kelso faces Brisbane Supreme Court for drug trafficking, child exploitation material

A former business manager diagnosed with pedophilic disorder after he was busted with a stash of sick material told police that drug trafficking was the “worst job he’d ever had”.

Peter John Kelso, 40, faced Brisbane Supreme Court for drug trafficking and child exploitation material.

A former business manager diagnosed with pedophilic disorder after he was busted with a stash of sick material told police that drug trafficking was the “worst job he’d ever had”.

Peter John Kelso, 40, faced Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday for drug trafficking and possessing child exploitation material.

The court heard the former business manager started trafficking methamphetamine, cannabis, MDMA, ketamine and cocaine after he fell into the grips of methamphetamine addiction.

Crown prosecutor Andreas Galloway said Kelso had admitted to police that he had been smoking one to three points of meth a day throughout the four-month trafficking period from November 2020 to April 2021.

In that time, Kelso had admitted to selling to at least 10 customers – but potentially up to 20 – including six regular customers he considered “friends”, the court heard.

Mr Galloway said Kelso had acquired the drugs over the dark web and had records showing that one customer owed him $16,275 for 18 supplies of methamphetamine and 17 supplies of cannabis.

The court heard there was no evidence Kelso had made any significant profit from the business.

Justice Thomas Bradley noted that Kelso had stopped trafficking of his own accord, and later told police it was a “terrible business.”

Kelso had considered it the “worst job he’d ever had” because people were constantly calling him at irregular hours, Justice Bradley said.

When police raided Kelso’s Hamilton residence in December 2021, they uncovered evidence of his next set of offending – the child exploitation material.

The court heard they uncovered a pillowcase with an image of a young naked anime-style girl, along with 288 incriminating images and 206 videos on Kelso’s phone, and 26 images and 130 videos on his computer.

Of the images, 50 were images of cartoon characters, while the other material include images and videos of pre-pubescent girls and boys as young as infants.

The court heard Kelso had distributed the material over WhatsApp from August to December 2021 in an attempt to exchange it for new material.

During the same search, police also found 0.88g methamphetamine, 109g cannabis, 1.165g cocaine, 0.375g of a substance containing ketamine, 55 diazepam tablets, and 4.205g MDMA.

They further located instructions for producing methamphetamine, along with two cannabis plants with a hydroponic set up, three boxes of cannabis seeds, and magic mushroom spores.

Justice Bradley said Kelso had made full and potentially exaggerated admissions to police about his drug offending, and had ceased using drugs in the years since.

Kelso had also sought out counselling and had participated in regular appointments with a psychiatrist, who found he met the diagnostic criteria for both pedophilic disorder and delusional disorder.

The psychiatrist suggested in a report to the court that Kelso’s delusional disorder, accompanied by his methamphetamine use throughout all of his offending, may have impacted his decision making.

Justice Bradley said he would fashion a sentence that gave Kelso certainty of release, taking into account the factors in his favour, which included the support of his family and partner.

Kelso pleaded guilty on September 3 to two counts of possessing child exploitation material, two counts of producing dangerous drugs, and one count each of trafficking dangerous drugs, possessing dangerous drugs, possessing dangerous drugs in excess of 2g, possessing dangerous drugs in excess of 0.004g, possessing instructions for producing a dangerous drug, distributing child exploitation material, and using a carriage service to access child exploitation material.

He received a head sentence of four years imprisonment, to be suspended after 12 months in actual custody.

For the carriage service offence, he was released under a four year good behaviour order with a conviction recorded.

Kelso waved goodbye to his partner and family before being escorted into custody.