‘Your own selfish sexual gratification’: man given jail sentence for abuse material
A man who claimed he only accessed child abuse material to keep his partner happy has been slammed by a Hobart judge as ‘selfish’. What the judge had to say.
Police & Courts
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A Launceston man will spend over a year in jail after he was convicted for possessing and distributing child abuse material to maintain a relationship with his then-partner convicted pedophile Christopher Farrell.
Acting Justice Brian Martin handed down the sentence for David James Harvey, 56, in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Wednesday, stating he was satisfied that while some offending occurred to “please Farrell”, outside of Farrell, he was “seeking to interest and please men for your own satisfaction”.
Farrell was convicted in May this year of 11 Commonwealth counts of using a carriage service to access, possess, transmit, solicit and cause child abuse material to be transmitted to himself, plus two summary charges, including the possession of bestiality material.
He received a sentence of seven years’ jail, with a non-parole period of four years.
Farrell has been diagnosed with “paraphilia”, a non-exclusive pedophilic disorder – meaning he is also attracted to adults.
Harvey pleaded guilty to five counts of using a carriage service for child abuse materials, one count of controlling child abuse material and one count of possessing bestiality material.
Acting Justice Martin detailed the crimes, which occurred over three years and contained child abuse material featuring sexual acts and poses of young people, including one child as young as 8 years old.
Part of Harvey’s offending involved the use of messaging service Telegram to exchange images and videos with other people online, as well as engage in conversation about child abuse material.
One exchange was read out in court between Harvey and another user named Keiran, including Harvey’s response to a video of child abuse material – ‘‘OMG yum that is so hot I’ll have to send you some dollars”.
Acting Justice Martin said that he believed Harvey was “remorseful”, understanding of the impacts of his offending, as well as psychologically suffering from “a deep sense of a lack of self-worth” at the time of the offending, leading to him being anxious to please Farrell and “keep him happy”.
However, he believed there were elements of the offending that occurred for Harvey’s own “satisfaction”.
“In evidence, you spoke of allowing people to send you material when ‘you should have said no’, spoke of being ‘old and hideous’ and said ‘if they got excited, maybe they would pick you’,” Acting Justice Martin said.
“Let it be clearly understood that by your communications and conduct, you encouraged Farrell in his child abuse interest and encouraged others in their conduct for your own selfish sexual gratification.”
Acting Justice Martin sentenced Harvey to two years and nine months in prison, with a Recognizance Release Order after serving one year and six months.
He will then be placed on a good behaviour bond for two years and will be listed on the Community Protection Offender register for five years.
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