Disgraced A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack sentenced

FORMER Channel 9 reporter Ben McCormack was doused with water and saliva after avoiding jail time on child porn charges.

FORMER A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack had a cup of water and spit thrown at him as he left court after avoiding jail on child porn charges.

The man — who claimed to be a victim of sexual abuse — threw a cup of water he’d apparently also spat in over McCormack as he left the Sydney District Court this morning.

McCormack, 43, was convicted and ordered to pay $1000 and placed on a good behaviour bond for three years after pleading guilty to two child porn charges.

The man called him a “f***ing filthy maggot” as he approached McCormack, who had been standing next to his lawyer Sam Macedone, who was talking to journalists.

The moment the verbal abuse began, McCormack walked quickly through a large crowd of journalists — which is when the man struck. “That happened to me when I was a f***ing kid,” the man yelled as McCormack quickly got into a waiting red Audi.

The man had been waiting outside court for an hour and could be heard muttering obscenities and his outrage at McCormack’s sentence.

McCormack pleaded guilty in September to two charges of using a carriage service to transmit child pornography after Skype conversations between him and a West Australian paedophile were intercepted by police.

Mr Macedone said the reaction of the man was typical of someone who didn’t understand the facts of the case.

“People like [the attacker] don’t really bother me, you find them everywhere. That’s his problem and he’s got his own problems ... I feel sorry that Ben’s got to dry-clean his suit but you expect that,” he said.

“He has accused Ben of doing something that he has not done but that’s how some people think.”

Upsetting scenes outside Downing Centre as man throws cup of water and spit at former ACA reporter Ben McCormack via @dailytelegraph pic.twitter.com/qfD9v89mgz

— Emma Partridge (@em_partridge) December 6, 2017

WHY McCORMACK ESCAPED JAIL

Judge Paul Conlon said it was clear from the conversations between the two men they were talking about their shared “fantasies”.

He said the facts in the McCormack case were quite different to the cases of similar charges that normally came to court. In his judgment he said it was clear the worst aspects of child porn cases were “absent” in McCormack’s case

“There was no transmission of pictures or images of child pornography ... it does not include pictures of actual child victims. There was no attempt to sexually exploit children or grooming of any child to partake in child pornography.”

The Crown referred to the content of the conversations and also of a video McCormack sent to the man of him masturbating as proof of the “objective seriousness of the offences” and dismissed the defence of fantasy talk as “irrelevant”.

But Judge Conlon said the “overwhelming inference that I drew was that these conversations were examples of fantasising about young male persons.”

“The fact that this offender’s communications were the product of fantasy and imaginings is just one of the many factors a court is entitled to consider in assessing the seriousness of the offending conduct.”

The judge said the Crown conceded the charges couldn’t have been brought in their current form if they had taken place “in a private setting” and not over the internet.

“Accordingly, my assessment of the objective gravity in respect of both sequences is that they fall towards the lower end of the range of offences of their type.”

Ben McCormack leaves court after being doused with what appeared to be water and spit. Picture: AAP

‘IT IS CLEAR HIS JOB WAS HIS LIFE’

Judge Conlon believed McCormack had shown “genuine contrition” and accepted personal responsibility.

He had lost his career as a journalist, for which he had been “well known nationally”.

The judge said: “It is clear his job was his life. He will never again work in media again”, adding that McCormack believed his life had been “destroyed”.

Mr Macedone submitted that McCormack had suffered a punishment that exceeded the gravity of his crime given his loss of reputation and career.

“Owing to the extensive and explosive media coverage because of who he is, he has suffered and will continue to suffer public humiliation. Owing to his mental fragility, he will continue to struggle with his total loss of reputation and public ridicule.”

Members of the public treated people convicted of child porn offences harshly.

“No offence raises the community ire and sensibilities more than offences, or perceived offences, against children,” Judge Conlon said

The former Nine journalist arrives at Downing Centre Court for his sentencing on Wednesday. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

As he sentenced McCormack, Judge Conlon said a mitigating factor was his previous good character as a journalist with A Current Affair — and also that he sought help to control his deviant sexual urges long before his arrest.

McCormack told forensic psychologist Dr Jeremy O’Dea he was “triggered” in 2005 while interviewing two boys, aged 9 and 11, while he was doing a story about their father.

“He has told me that this meeting had triggered his awareness of his sexual attractionto prepubescent male children...since that time the paedophilic component...had increasingly dominated hiss sexual focus, to the point at times, it had been his predominant if not exclusive focus.”

Dr O’Dea said McCormack had been sexually abused as a child — but he could not draw a link between that and his “paedophilic orientation”.

Another psychologist revealed the journalist found the idea of sex with young boys “distressing” and didn’t McCormack posed a risk to children.

His risk of reoffending was estimated to be low.

The Crown dismissed the admissions he had made as convenient and self-serving and said they were made post-arrest.

But Judge Conlon believed them, saying he believed they were accurate and rather being self-serving they were “against self-interest”.

“It would be difficult in the extreme to regard that information provided to the psychiatrist as being self-serving,” he said. “On the contrary, it would seem indicative of a person prepared to confront the truth necessary if one is seeking rehabilitation.”

He believed McCormack could be rehabilitated.

“I am ultimately of the view that he does have positive prospects of rehabilitation as long as he continues on his present path receiving treatment from the mental health professionals.”

McCormack was admitted to hospital in April after a suicide attempt.

Ben McCormack was spared jail. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

In a 17-page suicide note, he told of “fighting demons since he was 11 years of age” and his shame, guilt, despair and helplessness over the charges. The judge said he “couldn’t live with the public humiliation.”

Judge Conlon spoke directly to McCormack after the sentence was handed down: “You have never harmed anyone and accordingly, I wouldn’t like you to go forth and harm yourself.

“Hopefully, those who supported you throughout this period will manage to convince you otherwise.”

Outside court, Mr Macedone spoke of his hope McCormack could rebuild his life. “I think if he is given enough room he’ll probably survive. As to what he does, and where he does it, I don’t know.”

DESPERATE BID FOR HELP

It was revealed late last month McCormack had sought professional help for his sexual interest in young boys because of “self-loathing” it caused him.

The ex-television journalist approached psychologists for help years before he was charged with child porn offences — and he was so fearful of his urges he even avoided children.

McCormack has lost his career as a journalist.

The court heard the offending took place when McCormack was drunk and wanted to satisfy his sexual urges.

“Whenever he self-medicated, that is with alcohol, that was when he was most prone to engaging in this sort of behaviour,’ Judge Conlon said, reading from defence submissions.

McCormack twice tried to take his life after he was arrested in April and in a suicide note to his family he wrote he could not “bear the shame and disgrace” and his “life should be his to take away”.

McCormack had shown “contrition”, Judge Paul Conlon said.

In another note, Mr Macedone said McCormack wrote: “It’s not your mess I’ve created, it’s mine.”

The details of the police case against McCormack were revealed in disturbing detail when he pleaded guilty to the charges in September.

The police facts — some of which were too explicit to publish — exposed the conversations between McCormack and the WA paedophile.

McCormack used the name Oz4skinboi when he spoke to the man and introduced himself by telling him he loved “small, smooth hairless” young boys.

The conversations between McCormack and the man took place between April 30, 2015 and January 1, 2017 and were discovered by sex crimes detectives who were monitoring the WA paedophile.

McCormack confessed he favoured boys as young as seven because they had “perfect bodies” and was a “proud pedo, proud b lover”.

In one message, on May 13, 2015, McCormack informed him he was “meeting up with horny dudes fri night ... U free to Skype with us? Over wot we love?”

The pair discussed what child porn material each had and what the best way to view it was.

He said: “I love boys so much”.

On August 1 the two men talked about their desire for sex with underage boys. The unidentified male said: “Can’t wait to have one for real ha.”

McCormack answered: “They are so beautiful. I want to make love to one so badly.”

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