‘High achieving’ CDU engineering student caught with child porn to spend first night behind bars

A high achieving Darwin engineering honours student caught with more than 4000 child abuse files has traded a potential six figure graduate job with Inpex for a prison cell.

A HIGH achieving Darwin engineering honours student caught with more than 4000 child abuse files has traded a potential six figure graduate job with Inpex for a prison cell.

Jackson Ranasinghe, 24, faced a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to five counts of accessing or obtaining the sickening material “for his own sexual benefit” in May.

In arguing for Ranasinghe to be considered for home detention, his lawyer, Shane McMaster, told the court his client had been “an exceptional student”, “really from the get go”, after attaining a high school leaving score of 85.5.

Mr McMaster said Ranasinghe had since gone on to study engineering at Charles Darwin University where he was about to complete his honours thesis.

“It’s completely beyond my comprehension, but it’s something to do with electric vehicles, so no doubt it’s going to be something that’s going to be viewed very favourably, given the current climate,” he said.

“So he’s in an important area, he’s a high achiever, he’s somebody who’s going to be of value to the community moving forward and, in my submission, it’s very important that he’s able to continue that good work.”

Mr McMaster said any actual jail time could put Ranasinghe’s prospects for rehabilitation at risk and he had already suffered the “extra-curial punishment” of having his crimes exposed in the NT News.

Jackson Ranasinghe.

He said Ranasinghe would now likely have to close his photography business and had withdrawn an application for a graduate position with Inpex paying up to $120,000 a year.

“He withdrew his application the day before the interview because the article had come out not long before that,” he said.

“Given that outstanding academic achievement letter (from CDU) it seems not unreasonable, his view, that he was certainly a leading candidate.

“He was getting about two (photography) jobs a week, the article happens, he’s now had two jobs in the last eight weeks.”

But Commonwealth Crown prosecutor, Brittany Stone, said accessing child pornography was “not a victimless crime” but one that “fuels a market for children to be exploited, degraded and abused”.

“It is one which inflicts cruel and lifelong harm on its victims, every instance of this form of offending contributes to the demand for a market for this material,” she said.

“Offending of this kind occurs on an international scale and is becoming increasingly prevalent.”

In revoking Ranasinghe’s bail until a further sentencing hearing on August 5, Justice Jenny Blokland said a “short period of actual imprisonment” was inevitable.

“He’ll be remanded in custody but I am looking at an early release, probably on home detention,” she said.