‘High risk’ public servant IT worker back on Canberra’s streets after nearly a decade in jail
A “high risk” Canberra paedophile — who was a former public servant IT worker — has been released from jail.
Canberra Star
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A “disgusting and debasing” Canberra paedophile has been released from jail after serving his full sentence, with years of internal reports dubbing him a “high risk” of reoffending.
The man, who cannot be named, finished his nine year and seven month jail sentence on October 17, court records show.
He had served at least some of his time in protection at Alexander Maconochie Centre on Canberra’s outskirts.
He was locked up in 2010 over what a judge at the time described as an “appalling” and “depraved” string of indecency and child pornography charges.
His victims were aged between one and eight and he told police he kept his stash of photos as “some kind of trophy”.
The 51-year-old spent years unsuccessfully applying for parole, and finally took his claim to the ACT Supreme Court as his sentence was nearing expiry.
He claimed he was incorrectly branded a “high risk” of reoffending rather than a “moderate-low” risk.
On Wednesday this week, ACT Supreme Court Acting Justice Robert Crowe ruled the man didn’t have an “arguable case” to challenge his parole refusals and struck out his case.
The decision came nearly two weeks after the man’s jail sentence expired.
In 2010, Justice John Nield said of the man: “The offender is a paedophile. He is attracted sexually to young girls.”
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Justice Nield said “only time will tell” whether the man would reoffend.
A 2010 court-ordered psychiatric report said: “there will remain a risk that (the man) would act on his pedophilic tendencies in the future, even with treatment”.
ACT authorities recommended he be released on strict conditions in 2015, despite marking him “high risk”, but the then-Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis pulled rank and blocked his release.
In prison, the man was caught with a contraband USB stick which had lawful but “inappropriate” material on it.
The former public service IT worker’s offending came to light when he uploaded some of his depraved photographs online in late 2009.
Police raided his house four months later and found his child porn stash on a computer.
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