Convicted predator who secretly filmed female clients at chiro had hard drives with child abuse material

A convicted predator already in jail for secretly filming 200 females at his chiropractic clinic has been given extra jail time over child abuse charges.

A convicted predator serving a 10-year sentence for illegally filming more than 200 females at his chiropractic clinic will only spend an extra month behind bars for possessing child abuse material.

Peter Wayne Snodgrass, 54, pleaded guilty to one aggravated and one basic count of possessing child exploitation material at Crafers West in June 2017.

The former chiropractor was already in jail after being handed a prison sentence in February 2020 for secretly filming female clients — the youngest being 11-years-old — at his Rostrevor practice between 2012 and 2017.

He pleaded guilty to 216 offences where he used hidden and handheld cameras to film patients and indecently assaulted one of his victims.

During those proceedings, the predator told the court he had a “sex addiction” and “wanted to see more boobs”.

At the time, he received a head sentence of 10 years and three months imprisonment with a non parole period of eight years and two months, backdated to October 2017.

He was charged with 147 counts of indecent filming of an adult, seven counts of indecent filming of a minor, 50 counts of aggravated producing child exploitation material, five counts of aggravated possession of child exploitation material, five counts of possession of child exploitation material, one count of assault and one count of aggravated indecent assault.

The former chiropractor has been jailed for multiple offences after he hid cameras and filmed his female clients at his Rostrevor practice.

Appearing in the Adelaide District Court on Wednesday, the court heard the former chiropractor was reported to police in May 2017 for assaulting an adult patient who found a hidden camera in the practice’s treatment room.

Following that allegation, Snodgrass’ home was searched on two occasions where police found video images of the female patients as well as child exploitation images that were downloaded from the internet.

Two hard drives, related to his most recent charges, were found and seized from his property.

During an initial examination of his electronic devices, police were unable to download the encrypted files and needed a password.

The court heard Snodgrass initially declined requests to provide the passwords for those devices but later did after changes were made to the Child Exploitation and Encrypted Material Act 2019.

Those law amendments meant police were given powers to compel a person to provide passwords on encrypted devices.

Judge Geraldine Davison said police served Snodgrass with that order in November 2019 while in custody at the Mount Gambier prison.

It took police about one year to analyse and group the files on the two devices that contained a total of 940 illegal images.

Snodgrass will spend an additional month behind bars after police analysed encrypted hard drives that had 940 images depicting child exploitation.

“It was agreed by the prosecution and yourself that it is unfortunate that these matters were not dealt with by (the previously presiding judge) Justice Bampton, having risen at the same time and location as the other material,” Judge Davison said.

“However, I accept at that stage neither the prosecution nor the defence sought to delay the sentencing process that was well underway while awaiting the analysis for the hard drives.”

The court heard none of the images found on the two devices were of Snodgrass’ victims from his practice.

Judge Davison handed down a six-month sentence, which will be served concurrently with his other sentence, and ruled the non parole period of his initial sentence be extended by one month.

“It remains relevant that the possession of the material was not isolated and occurred in the context of the entirety of your criminal conduct of filming offences,” she said.

“It was motivated by desire for sexual gratification, including sexual interest in children.”

The judge noted Snodgrass was working in the prison and had “complied with the rules of the institution”.

She said the predator had not yet undertaken the sexual behaviour course but anticipated that he would complete it prior to his release.

Snodgrass was eligible for a discounted sentence of up to 25 per cent because of his guilty plea.