Child sex pest on parole
PETE MARTINELLI been prohibited by the courts to use the internet for anything other than banking – only then at a library or internet cafe.
Knight later admitted to police he accessed “low category child porn but did not get sexual gratification”.
“He said he clicked on popup adds to see what they were but they did not grab him sexually,” crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras told Cairns District Court.
Earlier that year Knight had breached court conditions when he drove down Wharf St and attended two parks.
When he pulled up next to a car that held a seven year old girl passenger, he made lewd faces at her.
Her off-duty police dad was careful to record Knight’s licence plate number.
Knight pleaded guilty to a commonwealth charge of using a carriage service to access child pornography, 14 breaches of a probation order, one charge of possessing child exploitation material and three failures to comply with a prohibition order.
The court heard Knight’s predatory pursuits began 21 years ago in NSW, when he exposed himself to a student in school. He moved to Cairns in 2004.
“You started reoffending within one month,” Judge Tracey Fantin said.
He was arrested two years later after exposing himself to a child at the Cains Lagoon and at a bus stop.
The sentencing Judge Peter White then noted that Knight had “paedophilic tendencies”.
In 2008 a lifeguard saw Knight lurking at the Lagoon and taking photos of a young girl with his phone.
Police intercepted Knight at an internet cafe where he was accessing his stash of child porn – he told them he believed the images were artistic, not pornographic.
Knight has been in custody for 13 months but unable to access sex-offenders’ courses.
“It is a disgrace,” Judge Fantin said. “He clearly requires supervision and should have completed appropriate courses and had counselling.”
She jailed Knight for two years but released him on parole on a three-year good behaviour bond and two years of probation. “You are supporting a terrible industry,” Judge Fantin said.