Hospital worker Kaushik Paul busted with ‘depraved’ child abuse material, baby shaking video

The court heard one of the files found in the man’s possession ‘depicted an infant child aged six to 18 months being shaken in a vigorous manner by a laughing adult male’.

Kaushik Paul leaves court with his wife in February. Picture: Alex Treacy

A Darwin hospital worker caught with child abuse material, including a video of a laughing man vigorously shaking an infant, will return to court with a psychological report exploring his “sexual interest in children”.

Kaushik Paul, 55, faced the Supreme Court in Darwin on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to transmitting, accessing and possessing child abuse material.

Commonwealth prosecutor Sam Lanskey told the court Kaushik’s offending had spanned almost three years and involved sending files to 74 different WhatsApp users who shared his “depraved” interests.

In arguing for Paul to serve time behind bars, Mr Lanskey said while “the quantum of the material was comparatively low”, the offending was “motivated by the offender’s sexual interest in children and his own sexual gratification”.

“While the volume or the quantity of the material is an indicator of the seriousness of the offence, your honour, it has been held that the degree of the depravity is the primary focus,” he said.

“And in this case, your honour, it is submitted that the material was abhorrent — it depicted the sexual abuse of real pre-pubescent children.

“Another file, your honour, among the material depicted an infant child aged six to 18 months being shaken in a vigorous manner by a laughing adult male.”

Mr Lanskey said it was not “a one-off where the offender stumbled across the material, contrary to what he told police in his record of interview”.

“There is no evidence before the court of genuine remorse or any insight into the offending on the part of the offender,” he said.

Kaushik Paul will return to court for sentencing in September. Picture: Zizi Averill

“There is also no evidence of the offender having engaged in any psychological counselling, it is therefore unknown what steps the offender has taken to address his sexual interest in children.

“And on that basis, the Crown submits that his prospects for rehabilitation cannot be properly ascertained.”

In reply, defence lawyer Matt Hubber said Paul was an Indian national who had moved to Darwin in 2021 where he took up work at the Darwin Private Hospital before his arrest in February last year.

But Mr Hubber cut any further submissions short after successfully seeking an adjournment to obtain a psychological report.

“It was really my learned friend’s submissions in relation to the sexual interest in children, the prospects of rehabilitation, the motivation for offending,” he said.

“(That) really needs to be explored and the court really is not in a position to sentence a man properly without knowing all of those things.”

Paul returns to court on September 19.