Taree teacher and radio host Paul Hunt enters plea in relation to child sex abuse material charge

A Mid-North Coast English teacher and radio host used the handle ‘fertilemind2’ on an encrypted app to send child sex abuse material. See what he told police the night they raided his house.

Paul Hunt. Picture: Facebook.

A Mid-North Coast teacher and radio host, who used the handle ‘fertilemind2’ on an encrypted message app, has pleaded guilty to disseminating child abuse material.

Court documents have revealed that during the search of his Tinonee home the 57-year-old high profile figure admitted to having an interest in incest over the past few years. Tinonee is a small village near Taree.

Paul Arthur Hunt pleaded guilty to a charge of disseminating child abuse material at Taree Local Court on Wednesday, February 22 and a charge of possess child abuse material was withdrawn.

Hunt, who was teaching English at Wingham High School at the time of the offending, has been in custody since his arrest on the night of Saturday, November 19, after police officers executed a search warrant at his home following a tip off earlier that week.

The search began around 9.40pm with police seizing phones, laptops and a USB.

Mid North Coast radio host and teacher Paul Hunt is facing charges of possessing and sending child abuse material. Picture: Facebook.

Just before 11pm Hunt asked an officer “Can I tell you something?”.

The 57-year-old admitted to using the handle ‘fertilemind2’ to communicate with a woman known as ‘pervertedmeme’.

He used a pornographic website to generate a number of lifelike images of young girls being forced to engage in sexual activities with adults.

Hunt said he accessed the site on a daily basis and admitted to an interest in child abuse material depicting young children and sexual activity between adult parents and their young children over the last few years.

But he stated he never watched pornography during school hours.

Mid North Coast radio host and teacher Paul Hunt is facing charges of possessing and sending child abuse material. Picture: Facebook.

Going by the name ‘The Slunter’, Hunt presented the weekly music show Terra Australis and Ship of Fools on 2 BOB community radio for many years.

He has performed with local musicians and been an MC for a number of local events including the annual EnviroFair at Taree.

Hunt was featured in a Wingham High School newsletter in term three of 2020 following the devastating fire season of 2019/2020 and he had recently completed his bushfire assessment and joined the Tinonee Rural Fire Service brigade.

Paul Hunt was a member of the Tinonee RFS. Picture: Facebook

Police were alerted to Hunt’s offending by a tip off from a person who had obtained a number of images of his phone, displaying communications via WickrMe where users can set the messages to be deleted after a certain time.

During the search Hunt told police he had stopped communication with ‘pervertedmeme’ in the last few weeks but according to the informant it was continuing up until the days before his arrest.

The images provided to police detailed the communication between Hunt’s alias ‘fertilemind2’ and that of a woman known as ‘pervertedmeme’.

During the communication Hunt had sent four images of a realistic animation depicting a young girl being forced to perform sex acts on an adult male with ‘pervertedmeme’ replying “very hot”

Hunt replied “not as hot as the real thing”.

According to the Australian Child Abuse Categorisation Schema (ACACS) the four images are classed as category 2 - very lifelike, clearly depicting young children between six and 10.

He admitted having contact with six women and two to three men but told police that when he was contacted by a person he believed was under 16 years he cut off communication as he “didn’t want to be a part of this”.

Following his guilty plea on Wednesday the matter was adjourned for sentencing to April 17.