Former Xavier College student Thomas Harris sentenced after child porn charges guilty plea

A former Xavier student nabbed with child porn – including on a school laptop – has been deemed not to be a “sexual deviant”.

Thomas Harris pleaded guilty to child porn offences. Facebook.

A former Xavier College student was nabbed with child abuse material on a school laptop, a court was told.

Thomas Harris, 20, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to four charges including producing child abuse material.

Harris, 18 at the time, was arrested at his Fairfield home in October 2018 after a vile story titled ‘Greg and Michelle’ was circulated among some of his Xavier College cohort.

The court was told the story was about a man who mutilated and murdered a girl.

Harris landed on the radar after he discussed the story’s content with another student while in a Year 12 common room at a Xavier College Melbourne campus.

Harris also discussed the subject of rape with the student.

Concerns about Harris’ conduct and the subject matter of Greg and Michelle were referred to Xavier staff who referred the matter to police.

Police seized and examined several devices – including a Xavier College laptop – which were found to contain child abuse material.

Harris was caught with more than 100 child abuse material files including a stack of Anime or animated child porn and vile material which depicted bestiality, torture and sadism.

A seized file depicted a sexualised image of a young child with two toy bears, the court was told.

Police also obtained and examined a copy of Greg and Michelle.

The court heard Harris downloaded the child porn after surfing nefarious internet social media site 4chan.

Jacob Slucki, for Harris, told the court his client was assessed as being not a “sexual deviant” by a psychologist.

“You can end up in some places you don’t expect to end up in (while surfing 4chan) …,” Mr Slucki said.

“He has to be more careful with what he (Harris) downloads.”

Mr Slucki urged the court to hand his client a diversion but Magistrate Luisa Bazzani said Harris’ offending was “pretty serious stuff”.

“This is grave offending … this is imagery of the worst possible kind involving children,” Magistrate Bazzani said.

“There’s some very disturbing aspects to the material … the possession of this material is just too disturbing for me to contemplate diversion.”

The court heard Harris, currently on Newstart, applied to join the Royal Australian Air Force but was rejected due to mental health concerns.

Mr Slucki said his client still wanted to be a pilot as a hobby but has shifted his career aspirations and is now studying aerospace engineering at RMIT.

Mr Slucki said a criminal record would have a “detrimental effect” on Harris’ potential career paths.

“He went to a very elite private school,” Magistrate Bazzani said.

“(Harris was) very fortunate to have that education.”

Magistrate Bazzani sentenced Harris to a two-year good behaviour bond without conviction but warned him it was his last chance.

“This will be your last chance to escape criminal conviction,” she said.

“If you continue to offend you will be caught.”

Magistrate Bazzani ordered Harris continue his psychological treatment with a report confirming compliance be provided to the court before April 2023.

“And finally, no further offending,” Magistrate Bazzani said.

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