Judge jails Andy Muirhead over child porn

1 Oct 2012, 6:53 pm   -   Source: AAP
Former ABC presenter Andy Muirhead has been jailed over child pornography offences. (AAP)

Former ABC presenter Andy Muirhead has been jailed over child pornography offences. (AAP)

The fall from grace of one-time popular ABC TV host Andy Muirhead is complete after he receives a jail sentence for child pornography offences.

Former ABC presenter Andy Muirhead's claim he is not a pedophile has been rejected by a judge who handed him a 10-month sentence for downloading thousands of child pornography images.

Tasmanian Chief Justice Ewan Crawford has sentenced Muirhead to three months' jail for possessing child exploitation material, and another seven for accessing it.

The 36-year-old will, however, be free in five months with the backdating of the first sentence and the cutting of the second with security of a $5000, three-year period of good behaviour.

Muirhead had pleaded guilty to three charges of downloading more than 12,000 pornographic images and videos, some of them described as "sadistic" and featuring 1930 different children as young as three years old.

Dressed in his customary dark suit and blue striped tie, the former host of the ABC television show Collectors and the broadcaster's Hobart breakfast radio program showed little emotion as the sentence was read by video-link.

Muirhead's psychologist, Dr Janet Haines, had given evidence last month that he had viewed the images because of work stress rather than out of sexual interest.

But in determining his sentence, Chief Justice Crawford said he didn't believe what Muirhead had told her.

"She said he has no psychotic condition, and that includes pedophilia," the judge said.

"However, I must observe that final conclusion was based on his self-reports which, I have concluded, were not truthful."

Chief Justice Crawford said the quantity of the material downloaded over 15 months, its nature and Muirhead's attempt to avoid being caught by switching software had led him to conclude "he was sexually excited by it".

He accepted Muirhead was suffering an adjustment disorder, which included anxiety and depression.

The sentence took into account Muirhead's dramatic and public fall from grace, and the likelihood he would never again see the like of the $150,000 a year he earned from his two ABC jobs.

"He was extremely successful in what he did, presenting as a good-natured and affable broadcaster," Chief Justice Crawford said.

"All of that came to an end with his arrest and his convictions will ensure that he will not be able to return to his high-profile occupations."

The chief justice accepted Muirhead had shown remorse in a letter of apology and that testimonials tendered had described him as a "very good person" and "a much-loved member of his family".

Several family members attended the hearing, leaving the Tasmanian Supreme Court in Hobart without comment.

The sentences bring to an end a saga of more than two years.

Muirhead was arrested in June 2010, initially pleading not guilty, and was immediately stood down from the ABC. His contracts with the broadcaster have since expired.

The Australian Federal Police acted on information received from Interpol in Luxembourg.

"What I did was shameful, reckless and stupid," he said in the apology read by his lawyer Kim Baumeler in July.

"The things that I saw on my computer were vile and disgusting."

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