Charles Gale fronts court over possession of child abuse material

A Melbourne grub who secretly filmed a naked five-year-old boy while overseas returned home to more trouble after he was busted with child abuse material.

Reservoir's Charles Gale has escaped jail for secretly filming a naked child and possessing child abuse material.

A mechanical engineer who secretly filmed a naked child while overseas and was busted with child abuse material has avoided jail due to exceptional circumstances including a “harrowing childhood.”

Charles Gale, 62, of Reservoir, was caught with 36 images of child abuse material hidden in a folder titled “wank bank” upon his return to Melbourne in July 2023 from a holiday in China.

Gale — who had been diagnosed with pedophilic disorder — was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to 16 months’ imprisonment but was released on a recognizance release order to be of good behaviour for three years.

Gale was stopped at Melbourne Airport by the AFP’s Joint Anti-Child Exploitation team while returning from a trip to China with his wife.

Investigators found 36 images of child abuse material Gale had produced over four days during the trip.

Charles Gale was busted with child abuse material upon his return to Melbourne Airport from China.

A hidden folder on his phone titled “wank bank” contained screenshots and images from social media.

Another folder containing images of pre-pubescent children taking baths, changing clothes or naked on the beach taken off social media was also discovered in Gale’s phone but those files did not meet the legal threshold for prosecution.

Judge Arushan Pillay ruled exceptional circumstances existed that warranted the imposition of a non-custodial sentence.

They included a small number of images captured in “everyday life” that were taken in a short space of time and that there was no evidence of the sale or distribution of the material.

He said Gale possessed the child abuse material for a short number of days.

“losing his parents at a young age contributed to the exceptional circumstances,” he said.

“It makes for a harrowing childhood and which on the evidence has a defined link to this current offending,” Judge Pillay said.

Gale’s employer wrote a letter of support which means he would be actively working and engaging in a positive and rehabilitative way in the community, he said.