THE KING v PAUL CHARLES WOOLLEY 15 DECEMBER 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Paul Woolley, you plead guilty to six charges under the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Five concern child abuse material and the sixth is for obstruction of a public official. The sentencing proceedings commenced on 3 October 2023 before Geason J and continued on 19 October 2023. His Honour heard the facts and a plea in mitigation. The Chief Justice determined, in accordance with the Sentencing Act 1997, s 91(5), that it appears probable that Geason J would be unable to pass sentence within a reasonable time. Accordingly the matter was referred to me to pass sentence. Your counsel and counsel for the prosecution agreed that I have regard to all of the material put to Geason J and to a transcript of the sentencing proceedings on 3 October and 19 October. Neither party advanced any further submissions.
In 2022 the Federal Police were notified that a Facebook account in your name was being used to transmit child abuse material. Your home was searched on 9 June 2022. An iPhone and an IPad were seized and examined.
Count 1 is a charge that you used a carriage service to cause child abuse material to be transmitted to yourself contrary to s 474.22(1) of the Code. The material falls into two categories. On two days, on 11 and 21 May 2022, you caused a person you knew to send you a total of five videos. You had met this person in Bali some time earlier and had been supporting her and her family by sending money. Some of the videos she sent you were of pre-pubescent boys in a change room with the camera focussing on their genitals. Two of the videos depict a pre-pubescent girl naked and washing in the shower, focussing on her breasts and genitals. It is apparent from the messages you exchanged that the person who sent you the material had some personal connection with the girl who was the subject of the video, and her parents. Those same messages make clear your sexual interest in the images. Payments to the person in Bali were made contemporaneously with the provision of the images but the payments are to be viewed in the context that you had also been making other payments for charitable purposes. The second category of material is six videos of child abuse material depicting young boys you caused to be sent to yourself. Most of those videos contain material of a depraved nature, some including anal penetration and masturbation of pre-pubescent boys.
Count 2 is a charge that you used a carriage service to transmit child abuse material to others, also contrary to s 474.22(1) of the Code. Between 21 May and 8 June 2022 you transmitted the videos I have described to others by means of Facebook Messenger, as well as three additional files containing child abuse material. Files were transmitted to 13 different recipients. Each file was transmitted to between two and nine recipients.
Count 3 is a charge of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications to a person under 16 contrary to s 474.27A(1) of the Code. On 30 May 2022 you had conversation on Facebook Messenger with a person who told you they were 15. By your plea you admit that the person was, or you believed them to be, under 16. You asked whether the person liked boys or girls, and then sent a series of photographs of a naked children while asking for sexy photos in return.
Count 4 is a charge of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material contrary to s 474.22(1). Also on 30 May 2022 you had a conversation on Facebook Messenger with a person who said he was 15. You sent photographs of naked female children and a video of a naked adult female masturbating. You then asked the child if his cock was hard, and asked him to show you his cock.
Count 5 is a charge of possessing child abuse material. The devices seized on 9 June 2022 contained 18 files including child abuse material in the form of videos and images. Some were replicated. The material depicted pre-pubescent children posing nude, restrained or blindfolded, engaging in solo masturbation, engaging in sexual acts with adults, being digitally penetrated, being anally penetrated by an adult male penis and engaging in various other explicit acts with adults.
Count 6 is a charge of obstruction of a Commonwealth public official contrary to s 149.1 of the Code. During the search you attempted to grab an Australia Post envelope from the table. When a police officer tried to prevent you, you punched him to the right upper chest with a closed fist.
Counts 1, 2, 4 and 5 carry a maximum term of imprisonment for 15 years; count 3, imprisonment for 10 years and count 6, imprisonment for two years.
I must impose a sentence that is of a severity appropriate in all the circumstances of your offences. I must take into account such of the matters listed in the Crimes Act 1914, s 16A(2), as are relevant and known to me. I have described the nature and circumstances of your offences. You have no prior convictions. Your personal circumstances were described by your counsel and in reports from Dr Georgina O’Donnell, a forensic psychologist, and Bree Somer, a mental health social worker to whom you were referred by your GP for counselling support early in 2023. You were 63 at the time of offending and are now 64. You are single with no children. You have some siblings but you are currently estranged from them as a result of this offending. You have an industrious history in various forms, for many years as a butcher and then in labouring or building related positions. More recently you have had casual employment at the local tip. You have some serious physical and health concerns. Until your remand in custody you lived alone in a rural area in southern Tasmania. After your apprehension for these offences you became reclusive as a result of the shame you felt about what you did. You claim that it was motivated by long term loneliness. You have no mental illness, personality disorder or intellectual disability which is relevant to sentence. You do have some situational anxiety concerning your present situation and the effect it has had on your life. You told Dr O’Donnell that you had no sexual interest in children, but she concluded, as I do, that the assertion is not consistent with the circumstances. Dr O’Donnell concludes, as best she is able, that there is a low risk of re-offending but that any risk may be further reduced by successful completion of a sex offender treatment program. You are willing to undergo such a program.
The main object of sentencing in offences involving child abuse material is the protection of children. That is to be achieved by denunciation of such conduct and imposition of a punishment which, as far as a court is able to achieve, deters offenders and others who may be minded to engage in similar behaviour, to refrain from doing so for fear of the consequences. Those factors are recognised in the heavy maximum penalties provided for by the parliament. Child abuse material offences put children everywhere at risk of sexual abuse by encouraging the creation of material to meet the market and demand for it. Your plea of guilty is in your favour. The prosecution accepts that it was entered at the first available opportunity. The cost and delay of a trial is thus avoided and victims are spared from having to give evidence, although that was not very likely to have been necessary in this case in any event. Apart from your conduct with the police officer during the search you co-operated with the police. It is not suggested that the police officer suffered any physical or psychological impact. It was a spontaneous reaction to the circumstances in which you found yourself and I think that it is very unlikely to be repeated. I also accept that you are remorseful, although some of your expressions of remorse seem to relate to the situation in which you find yourself.
Whilst general deterrence is one of the predominant sentencing considerations, the sentence must be proportionate to your criminal conduct. The punishment must fit the crime. Your crimes do not extend over a prolonged period. The prospect of your rehabilitation can be addressed by either completion of programs while in prison or an order which empowers a probation officer to direct your attendance at such a program following your release. The number of images you possessed, had transmitted to yourself and transmitted others was relatively small compared to many cases seen by the Court. It was not possessed by you for a long period. On the other hand your involvement across a number of counts was active and not passive. The content of most of the images were of a serious nature and depicted young children. Every child depicted is a victim. You participated in the transmission of images to you from Bali in a way which suggested a direct link with creation of the images. The images transmitted to you involved an international element and you received them regardless of the potential impact on the victim or victims associated with your friend in Bali. Although your transmission of the material to others involved no commercial element, it contributed to the production and demand for such material and the degradation of the children who were the subject of it. Further, you engaged in real time on Facebook Messenger in a sexual way with two persons you believed to be children.
Paul Woolley, you are convicted on each count on the indictment. I am not satisfied that you do not pose a risk of committing a reportable offence within the meaning of that term in the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 in the future. I make an order directing that the Registrar cause your name to be placed on the Register and that you comply with the reporting obligations under the Act for a period eight years from your release.
I make forfeiture orders in accordance with the draft order which appears at page 153 of the Crown Papers.
On count 1 you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 18 months from 18 October 2023. You were remanded in custody on 19 October 2023 but spent one day in custody before then..
On count 2 you are sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months commencing 18 October 2024, the effect of which is that six months of that term is to be served concurrently with the term just imposed and the balance is to be served cumulatively.
On count 3 you are sentenced to imprisonment for six months cumulative to the term imposed on count 2.
On count 4 you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of nine months concurrent with the term imposed on count 3 but cumulative to the term imposed on count 2.
On count 5 you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months. I regard that count as involving a good deal of overlapping criminality with count 1 and so the term will also commence on 18 October 2023.
On count 6, in light of the other sentences I have imposed, I would order your release without passing sentence upon you giving security by recognizance in the terms I am about to announce.
The result is a total sentence of imprisonment for two years and nine months from 18 October 2023. I order that you be released after having served 15 months of that term upon you giving security by recognisance without surety in the sum of $5,000 that you will be of good behaviour for a period of two years from your release. The conditions of that order will be that, during that period, you:
(a) be subject to the supervision of a probation officer appointed in accordance with the order; and
(b) obey all reasonable directions of the probation officer; and
(c) not travel interstate or overseas without the written permission of the probation officer; and
(d) undertake such treatment or rehabilitation programs that the probation officer reasonably directs.
You are required to report to Community Corrections at 75 Liverpool Street, Hobart, within two days of your release from custody. The purpose of the recognizance release order I have just made is to provide an incentive for you not to re-offend and to encourage your rehabilitation. If you fail to comply with a condition of the recognizance, for example by committing some further offence, you may be called upon to pay the sum of $5,000, and a court may order that you serve the remainder of the term.