A Tasmanian firefighter who pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material has had the charge dismissed without punishment after a Supreme Court judge found his offending was driven by a mental health condition caused by a medical misdiagnosis.
Justice Stephen Estcourt used a rarely applied section of Commonwealth law to dismiss the charge against the 41-year-old on March 31.
Police executed a search warrant at the man’s home in April 2024, seizing his laptop and phone.
An examination found 68 files of child abuse material stored in a folder on his laptop, downloaded over nine weeks.
The man told police he had used peer-to-peer file-sharing software and accessed adult pornography, but could not explain why he downloaded the files.
The court heard he was misdiagnosed with ADHD during a brief telehealth appointment and prescribed the stimulant Vyvanse.
His mental health deteriorated significantly and he developed what was described as “severe sexual orientation obsessive-compulsive disorder”.
A psychologist told the court the condition was “the only causal motivation” for him accessing the material and said it “impaired his ability to exercise appropriate judgement”.
She said he became obsessed with the idea he was “a closet homosexual” and compulsively viewed pornography to check whether he was still attracted to women.
The man told her: “I couldn’t shake the thoughts and I had to keep checking.”
The psychologist said the man was “highly distressed” and that his behaviour was “totally contradictory to his values”.
Prosecutors argued the man “knew what he was doing was wrong and was to some extent still morally culpable”.
Justice Estcourt said such dismissals were rare but found the case was “the very sort of unusual or exceptional case” the law was designed for.
“I am satisfied that it is inexpedient to inflict any punishment in this case and I dismiss the charge against the defendant,” he said.
The man, a father of two with no prior convictions, has been stood down from the Tasmanian Fire Service.
