Many IDs to access kid porn

THE former owner of a Trinity Beach cafe told police looking at child pornography was like looking “at a car crash”.

Lance Kendal Dyer, 41, was approached by police in April last year after accessing a cloudbased collection of child pornography for nearly two years.

Cairns District Court heard he told officers: “It is like a car crash. You are not supposed to look at it, but you do.”

Dyer was the one-time coowner of Trinity Beach’s Tranquillity Cafe, often seen manning the coffee machine and grills of the family-friendly operation. Prior to his arrest, he had left the business and started work as a butcher – but rumours of the offence and awkward questions by customers forced him to move on. He now lives in Victoria. Commonwealth prosecutor Megan Howard told the court Dyer had accessed the material through an encrypted peer-topeer network.

“He had a number of online identities,” Ms Howard said.

The court heard he was emailed links to the imagery, about which he would post comments. “He adopted different personalities to avoid detection,” Ms Howard said.

Dyer pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to access child pornography.

Stephanie Williams, defending, told the court her client had used the porn to relive his own childhood abuse, “staring at his own pain through the screen” in a dissociative state.

Judge Dean Morzone said Dyer had been “determined … to satisfy your own gratification” and sentenced him to 18 months probation.