Porn puts abuser back in jail
A dangerous paedophile released from jail on a strict supervision order collected more than a million child porn images over two years while being monitored.
Paul Douglas Allen was jailed for nearly two years on Friday after police found the child exploitation images and videos on his computer after a raid last September.
That was despite Allen being freed twice by a judge under strict rules, including not to access the internet unsupervised, not to search for any images of children and not to access any pornographic material.
The District Court was told he began collecting more than two years before the sex offenders' management officers raided him.
They confiscated two computers, one with more than a million images and videos ranging from the least offensive category to the worst.
There was so much offensive material, police had no way to categorise it all, picking a sample of almost 10,000 images and videos to show the court.
Allen's lawyer David McKenzie said his client had made big gains since his last offence against a child but needed more help.
"He has been trying to get help for this collection - he is a hoarder and a collector," Mr McKenzie said.
Judge Henry Wisbey was told the material illustrated a high level of debauchery and perversion and Allen displayed a high level of planning and persistence in his collection of it.
Judge Wisbey said the material was collected in defiance of a release order and he had to impose a jail term.
Allen's crimes against children involved seven victims aged four to 10, with 12 offences between 1998 and 2001 when he was aged 18 to 21. Some offences were while he was on bail or on parole
After first being deemed a dangerous sex offender in 2006, Allen was found to have breached his conditions 14 times in 2009, including by having dozens of DVDs and newspaper cuttings featuring non-sexual images of children.
Judge Peter Blaxell, who released Allen, commented that "the significant risk factors that are likely to precipitate further offending are Mr Allen's habit of collecting child images".
Allen will be eligible for parole after 11 months and has served almost all of that time on remand.
The 34-year-old is due to be sentenced in Perth Magistrate's Court tomorrow for breaching the terms of his supervision order.
