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Child porn pervert’s application to become children’s dive instructor denied at VCAT

A PERVERT dad caught watching child porn has had an application to work as a diving instructor quashed by the state tribunal.

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A CONVICTED sex offender has pleaded with the state tribunal to become a kid’s diving instructor, despite not being able to dive himself.

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The man pleaded guilty to watching and saving child porn on his computer in 2008, after earlier blaming his partner for the images when arrested and interviewed at Frankston Police Station on October 10.

The then 27-year-old wasn’t able to apply for a Working with Children Check for eight years after being placed on the Sex Offender’s Registration Act.

But a few weeks after his name was removed from the register, AWU applied to the Department of Justice and Regulation Secretary for a children’s check.

The man, known only as AWU, stated he wanted to “teach children how to dive” but is unable to dive because of health concerns.

He was denied on January 18 this year, but appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal just four days later.

It came before deputy president Heather Lambrick on May 22, when she also rejected his application.

She said AWU had shown no “insight or remorse” for his serious offending, and had repeatedly breached the reporting requirements imposed on him under the sex offender’s act.

He was found guilty of three counts of failing to comply with the conditions, including living with and supervising children between 2009 and August 2013, and creating several online accounts while on the register.

“AWU has blatantly and repeatedly disregarded, in a most worrying way, the obligations placed on him,” Ms Lambrick said.

“The likelihood of future threat(s) caused by AWU is not limited in its scope to immediate and direct physical/sexual harm perpetrated … directly onto a child.”

During the hearing, clinical psychologist Dr Paul Grech testified that AWU “does not present any type of risk to children” but later changed his conclusion to say the risk was “moderate” after receiving more information.

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/child-porn-perverts-application-to-become-childrens-dive-instructor-denied-at-vcat/news-story/5b6a5f3c5a60d1043ce680b2551f919c