Former Reclink chair David O’Halloran pleads guilty to child abuse sex offence charges

The ex-boss of a nationwide charity produced and shared child porn, including a vile video of a disabled girl.

David O'Halloran was sentenced after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. Twitter.

A former charity boss has used his prior good character to help beat a heftier jail term after he was nabbed producing and sharing vile child pornography.

David O’Halloran, 66, was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to a minimum nine months’ jail after pleading guilty to six charges including produce, possess and distribute child abuse material.

The former Reclink chair was busted with a stack of child abuse material after police raided his St Kilda home in August last year.

O’Halloran landed on the police radar after he shared videos and images of himself having sex with an underage transgender schoolgirl via his Grindr account.

The fiend and a co-accused also filmed themselves having sex with a second underage schoolgirl which they shared with a Kik sicko ring.

O’Halloran, who immediately appealed his 18-month maximum jail sentence, met his first victim via sugardaddymeet.com in 2019.

The co-accused messaged O’Halloran asking if he wanted to have a threesome with the second victim.

“I have a friend who want (sic) to be with two men. But she’s young,” the co-accused said.

“The younger the better,” O’Halloran replied.

“I like very young. I’m already f***ing a 16 yo.”

The co-accused picked the victim up from near her school and drove her to O’Halloran’s home where they had sex in late-2019.

Police seized O’Halloran’s laptop, iPhone and two storage devices which contained more than 100 child abuse files including vile material which depicted sadism and bestiality.

The court was told some of the child abuse images came with vile captions including “let’s play rape again daddy. I promise I’ll fight harder this time”.

O’Halloran, whose former charity helped many people including those with disabilities, shared a vile video of a girl aged 8-10 with a “clear intellectual disability” performing a lewd act.

O’Halloran later sent files of a victim performing sexual acts after an associate asked if he had any good videos.

O’Halloran sought legal advice from his lawyer and gave a “no comment” interview after he was arrested again in September last year.

The long-term Reclink member, who is also associated with Rotary Club, fronted court armed with a list of “impressive” character references.

The six references included a doctor who worked with O’Halloran at Gambler’s Anonymous, a Melbourne addiction specialist and a Rotary Club member.

One reference said O’Halloran made a “huge contribution in improving society”.

Magistrate Greg McNamara said he gave weight to the “strong character” evidence provided by “sensible people”.

A mother of one of the victims, who sat in the hearing via a web link, groaned loudly when Magistrate McNamara indicated he would take O’Halloran’s good character into account.

The distraught mother then shook her head and cried.

Magistrate McNamara said the victims were just “vehicles” for O’Halloran’s offending.

“All those people (the victims and families) blame themselves,” Magistrate McNamara said.

“None of those people are responsible.”

Magistrate McNamara also pointed out O’Halloran had lost his employment and could not participate in charitable events due to his offending.

O’Halloran, who told a psychologist he “didn’t think he had committed a crime”, was made a registered sex offender for life.

The mother verbally expressed her displeasure just after O’Halloran’s sentence was handed down.

“Nine months, nine months, nine months,” she said.

O’Halloran was bailed to front court for his appeal at a later date.

A previous version of this article reported that a Reclink life member gave a character reference on behalf of Mr O’Halloran. We now understand this is not correct.

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