Adelaide Hills chiropractor Warren Jon Young returned to prison after Court of Appeal rejects his appeal against his sentence

A Hills chiro who used social media to spread child exploitation tried to avoid going to jail – but he’s lost his appeal.

An Adelaide Hills chiropractor has been returned to prison after his last-ditch appeal against his sentence for possessing child exploitation material was rejected.

On Thursday the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Warren Jon Young’s claim that forcing him to serve his sentence behind bars was too harsh for his crime.

Young, 43, traded child exploitation material on the messenger application Kik with several other people between July and November 2018.

The seriousness of the material ranged from low-level images to videos at the upper range of the child exploitation material spectrum

A joint police investigation between federal and local police was launched after Young was identified by the US-based Centre of the Missing and Exploited Children after he used an internet messaging application to access and send the material.

A total of 33 images and seven videos were exchanged, with three of those involving graphic sexual activity.

In January District Court Judge Adam Kimber sentenced Young to 17 months in prison and ordered he serve five months before being released on a good-behaviour bond.

Judge Kimber said the decision to make Young serve part of his sentence was finely balanced.

Less than a month later Young was released on home detention bail while the appeal was pending.

Chiropractor Warren Jon Young who was jailed for accessing and transmitting child exploitation material. He will now face a trial in the District Court. Picture: Mitch Mott

In their judgment, President of the Court of Appeal Trish Kelly and Justices Sam Doyle and Chris Bleby rejected Young’s argument that Judge Kimber had reached the wrong conclusion when assessing the chiropractor’s risk of reoffending.

Young’s counsel argued Judge Kimber had ignored the conclusions of medical reports concluding there was a low risk of reoffending.

However, the Court held the judge had provided a “more nuanced” reading of the reports, which did not rule out the chance Young would return to searching child exploitation material online.

“It may be accepted that the Judge in this matter was faced with a very difficult sentencing task,” the Court of Appeal concluded.

Warren Jon Young pictured entering court before being sentenced. Young is an Adelaide Hills chiropractor who admitted to using the Kik messenger app to access child exploitation material. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

“While the offending was indeed very serious, there were many positive aspects in the appellant’s personal circumstances, which meant that it would not have been an error if the Judge had made a decision to order immediate release on recognisance.

“However, that is not the point. Although the number of images involved here was comparatively low, the appellant’s decision to transmit them to others and the level of personal interest he displayed in them were both relevant to the assessment of the gravity of the overall offending.”

Young will be returned to prison where he will serve the remaining four months of his sentence before being released.

Originally published as Adelaide Hills chiropractor Warren Jon Young returned to prison after Court of Appeal rejects his appeal against his sentence