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Sunshine Coast paediatrician Tom Sun Yap jailed for four months
for possessing child sex abuse images
By Laura Lavelle
ABC Australia
Tom Sun Yap, 44, worked at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital until his arrest. (Supplied)
A Sunshine Coast paediatrician will spend four months in jail after police found more than 2,000 child abuse images in his home.
Tom Sun Yap, 44, was working at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital before he was arrested and charged in May last year.
On Thursday he pleaded guilty at Brisbane's District Court to six charges, including accessing child abuse and exploitation material on the internet.
He will serve just four months of his two-and-a-half-year sentence, after which he will be on a two-year probation.
The court heard federal police uncovered more than 2,000 child abuse or child exploitation images in his home, including some printed images kept in envelopes in his bedroom.
Yap told police his job involved working closely with children who were victims of sexual abuse, Crown prosecutor Matthew Thompson said.
"He says that that role was assisting police to identify and catch perpetrators of child abuse," Mr Thompson said.
'Stress relief'
In a psychological assessment, Yap had said he viewed the child exploitation material as a "scientific project, and something of continuing education for him in his work with children who had been abused," the court heard.
Sexual assault support services:
Queensland Sexual Assault Helpline Queensland: 1800 010 120
1800RESPECT national helpline: 1800 737 732
Sexual Assault Counselling Australia: 1800 211 028
Bravehearts (support for child sexual abuse survivors): 1800 272 831
Centre Against Sexual Violence: 3808 3299
MARS Australia (for men affected by rape and sexual abuse): 3857 1222
Yap's defence lawyer Ben Power said his client told the psychologist he was curious but did not receive sexual gratification from the images, and "did not realise he was causing harm to children".
That's an absurdly stupid statement for a man in his position.
Mr Power also said his client suffers from a major depressive disorder and was using the images as "stress relief".
But, without sexual gratification? Another colossally stupid statement.
He said Yap had lost his career, friendships with former colleagues and had been publicly shamed.
"His identity and his network of professional colleagues has been destroyed," Mr Power said.
"Psychological reports show he has a low risk of further offending."
Seriously, he was using child sex abuse material as stress relief from his major depressive disorder. He has just lost his career and all his friends but has a low risk of reoffending. Unbelievable!
'Depraved material'
Judge Vicki Loury said it was "breathtaking" a man in Yap's position did not think of the harm the images caused children.
"These are real children who are subjected to appalling and depraved sexual acts in order to feed a market, created by people like you, who access and download it and use it for sexual gratification," she said.
"The continued use of such material by people creates a demand for the production of increasingly worse material. The material you accessed and downloaded was depraved and involved the corruption of innocent children some of whom were a very tender age.
"And frankly it is breathtaking that a man in such a position did not turn his mind to the harm that these children are subjected to."
Yap was sentenced to two years and six months in jail but will be released after serving four months.
He was given a two-year probation order, and subject to a good behaviour for five years.
Suffolk teacher admits string of child sex offences
Mark Langford tried to convince his victim to lie to police about his offending
IMAGE SOURCE,NCA
By Rachael McMenemy
BBC News, Suffolk
A teacher has admitted a string of child sex offences including possession of thousands of child abuse images and sexually assaulting a pupil.
Mark Langford, 55, was investigated after the National Crime Agency (NCA) received a report of a user having child abuse material.
The agency then found he had groomed and sexually assaulted a teenage pupil almost 20 years ago.
Langford will be sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on 25 September.
The teacher, formerly of Beccles, Suffolk, had written a letter to his victim last year in which he told them what to say to investigators, the NCA said.
Langford wrote: "Before you talk to him, please remember that it is his job to convict me - please do not give him any accidental ammunition against me."
The letter added: "You can tell him you know I'm a porn addict, and that I was arrested for having indecent images of children. Don't forget the 'arrested for' bit - don't say I did it, or that I confessed to you, because that might drag you into court as a witness."
Before his arrest, Langford, now of Ingleton, North Yorkshire, told officers: "It's all in there, I know what you're looking for, I've made a mistake and ruined everything".
"Made a mistake"? How about 2178 mistakes?
Officers found 2,178 indecent images of children on five electronic devices, a further 199 prohibited images - and 109 extreme images.
'Despicable and manipulative'
Langford exchanged images on various sites and accessed a cloud-based storage platform used by paedophiles to trade child sexual abuse material, the NCA said.
He was also found to have spoken online with others about sexual abuse, including conversations about child rape, encouraging abuse of children and tips on where to find child sexual abuse online.
He appeared at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday where he admitted 17 counts including indecent assault of a child under 16, indecency with a child, perverting the cause of justice, making, possession and distribution of indecent images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.
Langford was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the same court on 25 September.
NCA operations manager Holly Triggs said: "Mark Langford grossly abused his position of trust.
"In short, his offending was despicable and manipulative. This was evident from the way he attempted to coerce his victim into lying about his offending and the explicit conversations he had with other paedophiles online."
Langford was dismissed by his employer in January last year, the NCA said.
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