Former Health Department worker jailed over child abuse material

A FORMER NT Health Department worker will spend at least two-and-a-half years behind bars for child abuse material offences

Mark Friend, 52, will spend at least two and a half years behind bars.

A FORMER NT Health Department worker will spend at least two-and-a-half years behind bars for child abuse material offences, including partaking in video chats and sharing material with other adult men.

Mark Friend, 52, appeared in the Darwin Supreme Court last week after pleading guilty to five offences related to child abuse material possession, sharing and accessing.

The court heard that NT Police received a referral from a police department in the United States regarding the sharing of child abuse material via WhatsApp, and traced it to Friend’s residence in The Gardens.

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Police searched his house and seized several hard drives, computers and a mobile phone all containing child abuse material, before arresting him in August last year.

Friend told police he would go on online chat forums and chat with other adult men before exchanging child abuse material with them over a period of 13 months.

“Plainly, this offending cannot be dealt with on the basis of a one-off or reckless accessing or sharing of images born out of misguided curiosity,” Justice Jenny Blokland said during sentencing. “It is far more serious than that.

“You joined with other users of child pornography, who shared their screens with you or you accessed the material yourself and stored the material to make it available and shared videos with other users.”

Justice Blokland said the material was “of a highly disturbing nature”.

“Pre-pubescent males and even a toddler are depicted in degrading and humiliating ways,” she said.

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The court heard that Friend had previously worked at the Department of Health as a co-ordinator for youth and family services and was working at Anglicare NT at the time of his arrest.

However, the court heard Friend’s life began spiralling in 2013 because of substance abuse issues and because of trauma suffered in his youth.

“Drug use in these circumstances is not a point of mitigation,” Justice Blokland said.

“It might explain some of the more bizarre or extreme communications that are evident in the facts.”

Friend was sentenced to a total of seven years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and four months.