Stephen Porter, Ainslie Football Club: Junior coach hit with fresh child sex charges, granted bail
A junior football coach at a popular AFL club in Canberra has been hit with a fresh string of child sex charges after allegedly abusing a boy about 45 times over three to four years.
Hyperlocal
Don't miss out on the headlines from Hyperlocal. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Former soldier arrested over alleged Canberra pub murder
- Aged care worker sacked over sex offending … four years later
- Top former rugby union prospect dodges jail over drunken bashing
A veteran junior coach at Ainslie Football Club has denied that he maintained an illegal, years-long sexual relationship with a child, as he was on Monday hit with a string of new child sex and child pornography charges.
Stephen James Porter, 51, has been locked up on remand at Canberra’s notorious prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, but on Monday fronted the ACT Magistrates Court where he was hit with the fresh charges and granted bail.
In a statement of facts tendered in court, police allege that when Porter’s house was raided in late June, police seized dildos, butt plugs, amyl nitrate and other sex toys and asked him if he used them on his alleged teenage victim, Porter said: “prefer not to comment”.
In another court document, police say that when he was arrested, he said: “Oh well, I’ve had a good life … I’ve made it to 50, I’ve done well.”
“Police believed that the defendant was referring to the fact that his offending had finally been exposed …” the document says.
According to court documents, Porter is alleged to have told the boy that he allegedly had a relationship with a woman when he lived in England but that it didn’t work out.
When the boy asked if he was gay, Porter is alleged to have denied it, but said: “No, I like something else” before going on to say to the boy “I like you, don’t tell your folks, I’ll get in trouble”.
Porter allegedly ingratiated himself with the boy’s family in early 2014, and went on to sexually abuse him about 45 times over three or four years to the point where “it just became something that happened … and (the alleged victim) didn’t know how to say no”.
Police have also been given the names of other alleged victims, but are yet to approach them to find out if they were abused by Porter, the court heard.
Porter’s barrister, Stephen Whybrow, told the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday that his client would plead not guilty to allegations he maintained a sexual relationship with a young person, and not guilty to using the internet to provide pornography to a young person.
Porter is yet to enter a plea to four counts of possessing child exploitation material, three counts of having sexual intercourse with a person under 16, and one charge of possessing child abuse material obtained using the internet.
He said he would live with his mother while on bail, and posed no risk of reoffending because he would not be coaching AFL and would not have any contact with people under 18 while he was on bail.
“His name, his image and his position have been revealed to the people of Canberra,” Mr Whybrow said.
Porter has also been suspended from his ACT government IT job.
Magistrate James Lawton granted Porter bail, on strict conditions including that he not access the internet.