Former top diplomat Keith Douglas Scott unmasked as child porn offender

Keith Douglas Scott earnt $240k as one of Australia’s most senior diplomats before police discovered child abuse material on his laptop.

Keith Douglas Scott has been unmasked as child porn offender. Picture: Craig Dunlop

One of Australia’s most senior diplomats narrowly avoided jail time after Federal Police investigators found child abuse material on his laptop in 2020.

Former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assistant secretary Keith Douglas Scott, 60, has for more than two years kept his identity as an online child abuse material offender a secret by applying for baseless suppression orders, meaning news outlets have been banned from publishing his identity

On Thursday, the High Court refused his bid for special leave, effectively unmasking him.

At the time of his arrest, Scott was in charge of Australia’s foreign affairs strategy in Europe.

But by night, he grappled with longstanding drinking and pornography problems.

A keen outdoorsman and antique book collector, Scott struck up two online relationships with women shortly after his divorce, but dumped the first woman after she left him crippled with anxiety.

Scott resigned from his $240,000 a year job shortly after he was charged. Picture: Craig Dunlop,

Scott’s relationship with his second online lover, a woman known only as “Liz”, involved them discussing their sexual fantasies, some involving children, in late night email exchanges.

He was arrested after attempting to send Liz two lifelike, animated images of pre-pubescent children engaged in sex acts, which prompted Google to shut down his email account and to send alerts to the FBI.

The FBI in turn notified the AFP.

Scott resigned from his $240,000 a year job shortly after he was charged.

The Herald Sun understands the nature of the child abuse material charges would have prompted him to lose his top level security clearance had be not resigned.

Scott was in charge of Australia’s foreign affairs strategy in Europe

Scott was spared a prison sentence and handed a two year good behaviour bond.

Investigators found more child abuse material on Scott’s Macbook Pro, but were unable to prove whether he had downloaded them, or whether the pictures downloaded automatically.

Scott’s private psychologist told the courts last year the lonely, divorced father-of two tended “to try to soothe his feelings by using sleeping tablets, alcohol, and by impulsively accessing pornography”.

In May last year, then-ACT Supreme Court Chief Justice Helen Murrell spared Scott a prison sentence and handed him a two year good behaviour bond.

Marking his dramatic fall from grace, the former world-travelling diplomat must get permission from his corrections officer to travel interstate or overseas until 2023.

His years-long bid to keep his identity a secret was based on a claim that one of his relatives might be “distressed” to learn of his offending.

But Court of Appeal judges previously said the “significant and distressing consequences for the lives of family members of offenders” were “a consequence of the conduct of the offender”.

Originally published as Former top diplomat Keith Douglas Scott unmasked as child porn offender