Scott Donachie: Laverton man caught with revolting child abuse material

A vile Laverton grub caught with “revolting and horrible” child abuse material won’t spend a day in jail for his vile crimes.

Police raided Donachie’s home in May last year. (Generic photo)

A Laverton man who appeared incredibly remorseful after circulating revolting child abuse material has forced a magistrate to make the second most difficult decision of his career.

Scott Geoffrey Donachie, 39, was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order with 200 hours community work before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, having pleaded guilty to charges including distributing child abuse material and cultivating cannabis.

Donachie just managed to escape a jail sentence after he was caught with abhorrent child abuse material at his Laverton home on May 7 last year.

Investigators discovered he had been in possession of the vile material since March 2011 and had deliberately shared it in October 2019.

Magistrate Gregory McNamara said the images, which included a two-year-old being subjected to “indignities” and other children being assaulted, were “revolting and horrible” and “almost beyond words”.

“It’s hard to imagine how anyone could do that or how anyone could get pleasure from it,” Mr McNamara said.

“There’s a sense of revulsion about the whole thing.”

Mr McNamara said the material prompted the need to protect other children from the people who downloaded it, and seemed to have no conscience about it.

“As a magistrate you see human fallibility, including your own, frankly, in courts all the time,” Mr McNamara explained.

The magistrate went on to say he could somehow understand how crimes such as murder came to happen, but crimes to do with child abuse material were incomprehensible.

“This is the one crime I do not really understand,” he said.

Donachie’s lawyer told the court her client was “absolutely appalled at what he’d done” and had faced a traumatic and dysfunctional childhood.

It was heard Donachie had gone to see a psychologist soon after being arrested, and had undertaken 21 sessions with the professional as well as a formal sex offender treatment course.

Mr McNamara said he wasn’t often persuaded that offenders’ remorse was genuine, but he was “impressed” with Donachie’s strong level of genuine remorse.

The magistrate said his decision not to send Donachie to jail had only been decided that day, and was his “second most difficult decision” yet.

Donachie has been placed on the sex offender register for eight years.

The court heard Donachie was also caught growing cannabis at his Laverton home, which his lawyer said had been for personal use to cope with his major depressive disorder.

It was heard Donachie had a strong work history and was a vulnerable person himself.