Toowoomba dad accused of taking sexualised pics of his kids
A Queensland father claims he was only taking photos of his kids having fun when he snapped his near-naked youngsters in questionable positions.
INNOCENT images of children playing or something much more sinister?
This was the conundrum raised in court on Wednesday for a Toowoomba dad who says he was wrongly convicted of creating child exploitation material.
The married father claims he was only taking photos of his young kids "having fun" when he snapped the near-naked youngsters in compromising positions.
The images included a photograph of a child's crotch and a picture of a child pulling another's underwear down, a court heard on Wednesday.
These photos were among 45 taken over a very short period of time.
The man pleaded not guilty to offences related to the images including making child exploitation material.
This charge and others were dealt with separate trial.
While he was convicted last year on the exploitation charge, he was acquitted on the other offences.
The Crown also discontinued some charges.
The man was sentenced to six months in jail, immediately suspended for two years.
He, his wife and elderly mother were in the Queensland Court of Appeal on Wednesday, to watch barrister Ben Power push for the conviction to be quashed.
Mr Power said the judge should have told the jury there was no case to answer based on the evidence presented at trial and that directions should have been given about the context of the images.
The offending photos were taken in 2010 but were not discovered by police on his computer until a few years later.
By the time the matter went to trial, the children in the photos were adults.
Mr Power said what they remembered at the time of the photos being taken may have been vastly different to the memory they had when giving evidence.
"The children were mucking around, having fun," Mr Power told the court when it was pointed out that evidence at trial showed him directing the children - dressed only in underwear - to behave in a certain way for the camera.
Mr Power said when the pictures were "viewed out of context" they might look sexual but the photo session was "innocent" and the jury needed the context of the play session to understand this.
"It didn't matter at all to him if it was a naked bottom or a child making a face," Mr Power said.
The Court of Appeal is yet make a ruling and the judgment will be delivered on a date to be fixed.