Former Australian Taxation Office worker pleads guilty to child sex offences and indecent filming - ABC News

A predator who secretly filmed girls and young women in an Adelaide park while on cigarette breaks from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) also pretended to be a girl on chat sites to catfish men, a court has heard.

Key points:

• Former ATO employee Alan Leon Baden has pleaded guilty to child sex offences
• Baden was in possession of nearly 400 child exploitation items across multiple devices
• His crimes were uncovered after an SD card was left at his workplace

Former ATO information officer Alan Leon Baden has pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including possessing child exploitation material and indecently filming children.

The 52-year-old will be sentenced in the South Australian District Court next month.

Prosecutor Sophie Taylor has called for Baden to be jailed, telling the court that the father-of-three was in possession of 385 child exploitation items across multiple devices found at his office and Hove home in 2019.

"In addition to the child exploitation material, police also located a further 598 photos and videos across the defendant's devices," she said.

"These were of females, estimated in age ranging from 10 to young adults."

She said the indecent filming charges stem from Baden using his phone to "inappropriately film young girls and women on four separate occasions in indecent circumstances".

"It's not simply the defendant's collection of child exploitation material but his willingness to film and engage in the production of inappropriate and indecent material that makes this offending so serious," she said.

"There's no suggestion that these women had any idea they were being filmed, which adds to the predatory nature of the behaviour."

The court heard that Baden's crimes came to light after an SD card was accidentally left at his workplace.

Baden 'role-played' with men on chat sites

Jane Powell, for Baden, told Judge Adam Kimber that her client started using methamphetamine recreationally and associating with a convicted paedophile, who has since died, about eight years ago.

"Mr Baden says he had no idea the drug would have such a profound affect on him," she said.

"Your Honour appreciates that there is not an uncommon link between methamphetamine use and hyper-sexualised [behaviour]. It turned to looking up general pornography.

"He then got into chat sites and began pretending to be someone else — that gave him a social connection with the world that he otherwise did not have.

Baden will be sentenced in the District Court next month.(ABC News: Michael Clements)

"He role-played in these fantasies. He admitted he would obtain clothed images from websites and pass them off as himself.

"In that way, he would engage in fantasy role-play with other men who believed, or wanted to believe, that he was a young girl."

She said the indecent filming offending was "spontaneous" and he would use his phone to film girls and young women on the beach, or while he sat on a park bench during his cigarette break at work.

"He did not go out to plan to create these images," she said.

But Judge Kimber questioned how Baden's drug use contributed to offending that occurred during his workday or within an hour of him knocking off.

"He admits he was using ice during work," Ms Powell responded.

She added that Baden's recent diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder meant he had "less of a capacity to understand his actions".

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTExLTI2L2Zvcm1lci1hdG8td29ya2VyLXBsZWFkcy1ndWlsdHktdG8tY2hpbGQtc2V4LW9mZmVuY2VzLzEyOTIyNTY20gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyOTIyNTY2?oc=5

2020-11-26 02:41:00Z
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