ADFA cadet Daniel Igoe appeals sentence over threesome sex video
A former Australian Defence Force Academy cadet — and ex-private school boy — has appealed his jail sentence, but a Federal Court judge says he could end up being imprisoned for even longer.
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A former Australian Defence Force Academy cadet who secretly filmed a drunken threesome and shared the footage with mates on Snapchat has appealed his 35-day jail sentence but could see it blow up in his face and end up serving more time in jail.
Daniel Igoe, a former Brisbane private school boy turned ADFA cadet, earlier this year pleaded guilty to capturing visual data and to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, but has not served any of his 35-day jail sentence after being granted a stay while he challenges the sentencing proceedings.
In the Federal Court on Monday, Justice John Logan told Igoe’s lawyers there was a possibility he could send the case back to a different Defence Force magistrate for re-sentencing.
“Another magistrate looking at it might say, ‘35 days, you’re joking’, it should be three months,” he said.
The Defence Force magistrate who sentenced Igoe, Brigadier Michael Cowan QC, described Igoe’s offending as “more serious than the now-infamous ADFA Skype case from 2011”, in which a student at the academy used Skype to broadcast himself having sex with a woman to mates sitting in a neighbouring dorm room.
Igoe’s lawyers argued that Brigadier Cowan was wrong to describe the so-called “revenge porn” distributed on Snapchat as an “indelible record” since the video disappears after recipients watch it twice.
“The fact that Snapchat disappears after a couple of plays probably makes it even more benign that a photograph,” Igoe’s barrister, Russell Clutterbuck, said.
But Justice Logan said: “I cannot see, I just cannot see there is a mistake of fact that is material”.
Igoe — who has since been sacked from the army — appeared at his original sentencing hearing by video link from Queensland.
Brigadier Cowan, who was sitting in Canberra, had a sealed envelope with a warrant for Igoe’s imprisonment put on his lawyer’s desk before the hearing finished.
Igoe’s lawyers argued this suggested Brigadier Cowan had decided their client would be jailed before hearing both sides of the case.
Justice Logan said that was not necessarily the case, and said the sealed envelope was “in escrow” and that Brigadier Cowan could still have changed his mind before deciding on a punishment.
The case returns to the Federal Court at a later date.