Man guilty of child pornography

Updated November 7 2012 - 12:39pm, first published March 2 2010 - 10:41pm

A FORMER youth worker convicted of 12 child pornography offences must see a forensic psychologist regularly during the 30 months of a good behaviour bond and must not use the internet until the Community Offender Service deems it appropriate that he do so.Jacob Bennie, 22, was sentenced in Wagga Local Court yesterday by magistrate Geoff Hiatt after earlier pleading guilty to six counts of disseminate/produce child pornography and six counts of transmitting child pornography.The bond and a six-month suspended sentence was given to Bennie for the six transmitting child pornography offences under Commonwealth law, while he was given six two-month suspended jail sentences for disseminating/producing child pornography under NSW law.Mr Hiatt said given the objective seriousness of the NSW offences the only appropriate penalty was imprisonment.However, he suspended the jail terms for several reasons, including the fact that a jail-based sex offenders' program required the offender to be imprisoned for at least 18 months.Bennie was deemed unsuitable for periodic detention and community service.Mr Hiatt described Bennie's crimes as unusual in that they did not involve images of children, although one non-pornographic photograph of a child was sent over the internet.He assessed the criminality of the offences as being towards the lower end of objective seriousness but said the penalties needed to carry an increased level of general deterrent to deter others in the community from committing these types of crimes.Bennie must forfeit $500 if he breaches his bond.He stopped working as a youth worker after his arrest.The court last month heard that the years Bennie had invested in university study for a degree in social work had now been wasted and his marriage was under great strain.

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