Former ABC Darwin staffer Alan Dowler pleads guilty to historical child sex offences

A long serving ABC Darwin camera operator who pleaded guilty to a string of historical child sex offences has spent his first night behind bars.

A LONG serving ABC Darwin camera operator who molested two young girls in the 1990s has spent his first night behind bars after pleading guilty to a string of historical child sex offences.

Alan Dowler, 64, who recently retired after 17 years at the public broadcaster, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to nine offences including gross indecency and “unlawful carnal knowledge”.

Crown prosecutor Damien Jones said the girls were aged between 12 and 13 when Dowler sexually abused them at his home in Alice Springs, describing the offending as “a gross breach of trust”.

“The abuse of trust was perpetrated solely for his own personal sexual gratification,” he said.

Mr Jones said while Dowler did not have a criminal record, that was “not an unusual circumstance for offending of this type”.

“There’s this duality, if you will, two people, on the one hand, the outward person is what appears to be a good, genuine, law abiding citizen, that’s one side — the other side is what is contained in (the agreed facts),” he said.

“My learned friend is going to hand up references and speak of him as a good man and that may be so but there is this other side that is behind closed doors, that is where the gravamen of this offending lies.”

In response, defence lawyer Matt Hubber said Dowler had accepted full responsibility for his “horrendous” offending and had not been in trouble before or since.

“My client doesn’t seek to shy away from any of his responsibilities and to his credit he never has, he’s pleaded guilty to this offending, he didn’t seek any amendment to any facts or charges, he accepted it all, he’s here to plead guilty,” he said.

“This offending is horrendous, as categorised fairly by my learned friend and abhorrent (but) it is in isolation, it happened some time ago, nothing’s happened since and seemingly nothing happened before.

“It is a difficult, awful fact with offending like this that it is committed by people that don’t have criminal histories but on the other hand we can all be thankful that nothing has happened since or before.”

Chief Justice Michael Grant remanded Dowler in custody and he will return to court for sentencing on October 29.