Child porn, party drugs helped stressed deputy principal unwind
Watching child porn and taking party drugs was a way for a stressed Dandenong teacher to unwind, his lawyer claims. The teacher was deputy principal at St John’s Regional College when he watched videos showing boys as young as six being abused.
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A Catholic school deputy principal took party drugs and watched child abuse material as a stress reliever from work, his lawyer has told a court.
Quentin Paul Smith, 50, has begged a judge not to lock him up, saying he has already faced the humiliation of losing his 26-year teaching career — and now works as a cleaner.
The County Court heard today how Smith was second-in-charge at St John’s Regional College in Dandenong when he accessed 156 files of child abuse material on his laptop at his Richmond home between February 2017 and March 2018.
Some of the videos and photos depicted boys as young as six performing sexual acts on adult men. One involved bestiality.
Defence barrister Antony Trood said Smith was not coping well after being forced to step up his responsibilities and deal with staff stress after the school’s principal was sacked over a multimillion-dollar embezzlement in 2016.
“One of those things he did to relieve that stress was to take drugs and engage in promiscuous sexual activity with same-sex partners, which has included the accessing of child porn material,” Mr Trood said.
He argued the number of files Smith watched was “relatively few” in comparison to other cases before the courts where the totals are in the thousands.
Mr Trood conceded a jail term was necessary by law, but asked Judge Michael O’Connell to consider releasing Smith on a recognisance order, a Commonwealth law provision which allows criminals to be released on good behaviour for the period of the jail term set.
He said a Community Correction Order could also be imposed with rehabilitative elements.
Smith should also get a discount on punishment because of his remorse and early guilty plea, he said.
“He lost a 26-year-year career as a teacher,” Mr Trood said.
He had also suffered extra-curial punishment with media coverage, he said.
Character references provided to the court showed he was “well regarded”.
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Smith resigned from the school when he was charged following a raid on his home in March last year.
When asked if investigators would find child porn on his laptop, he said: “Not sure.”
The court heard he told them he was not interested in child porn “because of his line of work”, and that “in many ways it revolts him”.
He said he more fantasised about it than being “into it”.
Smith described his accessing of child porn and taking drugs as “an addiction”.
Smith pleaded guilty to three charges relating to possessing and producing child abuse material, and a fourth for GHB possession.
No students at the school were implicated in his offending, the court heard.
The prosecution said time behind bars was “warranted” to deter would-be offenders.
Judge O’Connell will sentence him later this month.