Source : Perth Now news
A victim of a notorious paedophile whose abhorrent crimes sparked a royal commission is considering pursuing a civil case.
Shannon McCoole, 44, was jailed in 2015 over his administration of a global child pornography network for abusing young children in his care and for the production and dissemination of child pornography.
In the South Australian District Court on Wednesday, an unidentified victim made an application to inspect court documents related to the case.
Judge Ian White said the victim had sought legal assistance “in perhaps pursuing a claim for compensation, or some other claim to be identified”, and part of that would be inspecting relevant documents or exhibits.
But he had a “great concern” that the file was “very voluminous and contains a lot of other victims’ statements and relevant statements”.
“I don’t wish people, even lawyers acting on behalf of one victim, to have access to material that they need not, in order to represent their client properly in a future claim in civil court,” he said.
He told lawyer Ric Traini that further liaison with the crown solicitor and an inspection of the transcript “will give you a better guide” ahead of any proposed action on his client’s behalf.
Judge White said he would start identifying relevant materials “so that staff don’t have to go through sensitive material unnecessarily”.
If those materials appeared to be enough, Mr Traini would not require a further application, the lawyer said.
McCoole’s crimes led to a royal commission that resulted in a major overhaul of SA’s child protection system.
He was caught after police in Denmark notified Australian police of child pornography online that was traced back to him.
In 2015, he was convicted on 18 state and two federal charges committed between 2011 and 2014, and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
One of his victims was just 18 months old.
The charges included persistent sexual exploitation of children, sexual intercourse with children and aggravated indecent assault.
When police raided McCoole’s home, they found more than 53,000 child pornography images, with almost 600 related to his own abusive acts.
In 2018, a court reduced his non-parole period by two years to 26 years for testifying against another offender in Europe.
