’Unreasonable’: child porn offender to be jailed after AG wins appeal

A repeat child porn offender who sensationally avoided prison time after being caught with more than 1500 child abuse images on his phone will be taken into custody within days after the Court of Appeal found his earlier sentence was inadequate.

A repeat child porn offender who sensationally avoided prison time after being caught with more than 1500 child abuse images on his phone will be taken into custody within days after the Court of Appeal found his earlier sentence was inadequate.

The appeal court today ruled that the sentencing judge’s decision to allow north Queensland banana farmer Dennis Gerard Brincat to avoid time behind bars for his crimes was “plainly unreasonable”.

They ordered Brincat be taken into custody where he will be required to serve at least six months in jail before he is eligible for parol.

Then Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath appealed the suspended 18-month jail term Brincat received when he was sentenced in the Cairns District Court in July, arguing it was “manifestly inadequate”.

Mena Creek man Dennis Brincat

The court today heard Brincat, from Mena Creek near Innisfail in north Queensland, had been declared a reportable offender in 2015 when he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for a total of seven charges including accessing and distributing child pornography. He was released from prison in March of 2016.

Crown Prosecutor Sarah Farnden said in April last year, when police arrived at Brincat’s Innisfail property to check he was complying with reportable offender conditions, he lied and told them he could not show them his phone because he had run over it earlier in the day and already taken it to the dump.

But Brincat answered the phone when police called him the next day and in a subsequent search of his property, officers found the phone under his mattress and it contained more than 1500 child porn images.

The Court of Appeal, comprised of Justices Philip Morrison, Philip McMurdo and James Henry today found in favour of the Attorney-General, allowing the appeal and setting aside the previous court sentence.

“I’m persuaded that the sentences which were imposed in this case are manifestly inadequate,” Justice McMurdo said.

“The absence of a period of actual custody to be served is plainly unreasonable.”

Dennis Brincat

Brincat was resentenced to six months’ imprisonment for a charge of giving false or misleading information relating to his lie about the phone.

He was also resentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for the charge of possessing child exploitation material and he will be eligible for parole in six months on May 12, 2021.

The judges ordered an arrest warrant sit on the file before being released in seven days if Brincat does not surrender himself into custody before then.

Ms Farnden said the sentencing judge had not treated Brincat’s prior offending and sentence as “the aggravating feature that it was”.

Defence barrister James Sheridan said there were other sentences that could be imposed that reflected the seriousness of the offences that did not require jail time including an intensive corrections order.

“It has to be frankly acknowledged from the outset that this is serious offending,” he said.

“It is serious offending that is made worse because of his relevant criminal history and also his conduct with respect to the investigation.”

“There were two search warrants…on the first occasion he made a denial of having any mobile phone and yet on the occasion of the second search warrant they discovered a mobile phone so it’s a breathtaking brazenness on the part of Mr Brincat.”

Mr Sheridan said Brincat lived in a small town and had self-isolated on his family property because there had been a negative reaction to his offending by the community.

He said there was a degree of “public disgust towards offenders who commit these offences”.