Teacher charged in child abuse network

A TEACHER at  The King's School in Sydney's west has been charged with accessing and producing child pornography.

ONE of Australia's most prestigious educational institutions, The King's School in Sydney's west, has become embroiled in a nationwide child abuse network after one of its teachers was charged with accessing and producing child pornography.

Gregory John Coupland, 40, a primary school teacher at King's for the past 10 years and a scoutmaster until his arrest last month, is one of 11 men charged in the wake of a four-month operation by the Australian Federal Police.

Most of the 26 charges laid against the 11 men -- six of whom come from NSW, with three from Victoria, one from Queensland and one from South Australia -- relate to the possession, distribution and production of images of child abuse.

The men were linked via a "peer-to-peer" file-sharing network, with members of the group trading explicit and exploitative images of children as young as four.

One of the men, who cannot be named, is also facing charges of having sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and a child under 14, while another has been charged with one count of bestiality. One of the accused is a registered sex offender.

During the investigation, the AFP removed two "at-risk" children from their home after deeming them vulnerable to abuse.

King's headmaster Timothy Hawkes told The Australian that police had informed him that charges laid against Mr Coupland "relate to alleged activities engaged outside of the school and do not relate to any activities within the school".

Outside of King's, Mr Coupland -- who underwent the usual police checks before he was employed by the school a decade ago -- was a scoutmaster in Forestville in Sydney's north.

AFP commander Grant Edwards said exposing peer-to-peer file-sharing networks was a difficult task, as participants would exchange images via private emails after generally being introduced to one another by a trusted third party.

"The images accessed are of real children being abused, and it's a shocking thing," Commander Edwards said.

Others charged include Denis Turner, 67, from NSW; Christopher Saunders, 36, from NSW; Edward Chegwidden, 39, from NSW; Paul Graham, 35, from Victoria; Kristian Knight, 43, from Victoria; Anthony Gerbes, 28, from Queensland; and Torsten Heggenblum, 45, from South Australia. Three of the 11 alleged offenders cannot be named for legal reasons.