Youth leader jailed for filming boys

An Adelaide man has been jailed for 15 months on child porn offences after filming boys and men in the shower and toilet of his home and the Lutheran church where he served as a youth leader.

The District Court jailed Anthony Kurt Power (pictured), 28, of Wynn Wale who confessed to downloading 4403 images and 610 videos of child pornography.

In sentencing Judge Paul Cuthbertson noted a psychological analysis in which doctors said the offences were ‘voyeuristic, not predatory’ which is believed to have stemmed from backward social development.

“You have grown up as a socially inept person (who is) stunted in your development as a sexual being,” Cuthbertson said.

“As you reached the age of having sexual desires, to your dismay they turned out to be homosexual desires.

“This was greatly perplexing to you, as you had been brought up with values that homosexuality was wrong.”

The judge said the attempts of rehabilitation and Power’s lack of social skills did not make the offence dissimilar from other such cases.

“You engaged in surreptitious filming as a rather poor substitute for engaging with other human beings, on the basis this was less blame-worthy in the eyes of God,” he said.

“It's likely (the pornography) was a poor substitute for an as-yet ill-defined sexuality that had been repressed.”

Judge Cuthbertson did not accept the option of a suspended sentence stating that legal precedent showed an immediate jail sentence was the only suitable penalty.

Power did receive a lower than normal non-parole period of four months.