A senior
priest at a prominent Catholic school was caught with more than a thousand
perverse images of children and teenagers, some in the worst category known to
authorities, a court has heard.
In March,
Father Stanislaus John Hogan, 69, pleaded guilty to one count of using a
carriage service to access child pornography and one aggravated count of
possessing child pornography.
In
sentencing submissions today, the District Court heard police had seized a
collection of videos, images and magazines of children aged between three
months and 16 years in his bedroom at Saint Ignatius College at Athelstone in
2012.
However, The
Advertiser has subsequently learned prosecutors mis-spoke, and that the youngest
children depicted were three years of age.
The court
heard about 70 per cent of the 1555 images and videos were of teenage boys but
Hogan also had five images and two videos classified as category 5 — which is
saved for the worst type of child exploitation material.
Sophie
David, for Hogan, told the court that a psychologist report indicated her
client’s offending had risen amid depression associated with reconciling his
sexual orientation with his religious beliefs.
“As a result
of his offending he has lost his vocation, his financial means and of course
his reputation and distinguished career as an educator has been indelibly
stained,” she said.
She said
some of the offending material had been bought in the 1970s and 1980s when it
was not illegal.
She asked
the court to consider suspending any jail sentence imposed against Hogan
because he was undergoing steps to rehabilitate himself, was unlikely to
reoffend and there was no suggestion any of the students had been exposed to
the illicit material.
The court
heard Hogan had been the school’s rector at the time of the raid and he had
held prominent teaching positions throughout Australia, including at St
Aloysius’ in Sydney and Xavier College in Melbourne, during the past three
decades.
Prosecutor
Scott Swain said he strongly opposed any suggestion of a suspended sentence and
indicated there would be an appeal if Judge Peter Brebner were to do so.
“His main
interest was boys of low to mid teenage years which I note was the very age
range of the students attending the school where he was employed,” he said.
Judge
Brebner remanded Hogan on continuing bail to be sentenced at later date.
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