Former Australian rules juniors coach Stephen Porter jailed for 20 years over child sex crimes

That is how an ACT Supreme Court judge described the "deep well of harm and suffering" a former Canberra football coach dug for his victims and their loved ones over the course of more than 11 years.

Stephen James Porter, 52, will now spend even longer than that behind bars, having been sentenced on Thursday afternoon to 20 years in jail.

Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson ordered the Macgregor man to serve at least 12-and-a-half years of that sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Porter pleaded guilty last year to four charges laid over crimes he committed between 2009 and 2020.

He worked for the ACT government in information technology during that time, while also volunteering as an Australian rules coach for young footballers at two Canberra clubs.

His first victim, a boy he coached at Magpies Juniors in Belconnen, would regularly visit Porter's home to kick a football and swim in his pool.

Using his mobile phone and a hidden camera, Porter covertly filmed the boy getting changed and wearing his swimmers. An agreed statement of facts shows Porter planned to upload some of the videos to YouTube.

Investigators discovered evidence of this offence - using a child to produce exploitation material - after raiding Porter's home in June 2020 and seizing a number of electronic devices.

Police had obtained a search warrant after speaking to the second of Porter's victims, against whom the 52-year-old perpetrated his most serious crime.

While coaching at the Ainslie Football Club in 2014, the offender struck up a private training arrangement with the parents of a boy who was aged about 11 at the time.

Porter later began physically abusing the boy, raping him dozens of times between 2015 and 2018.

While Porter pleaded guilty to a charge of engaging in a sexual relationship with this child, he disputed the boy's claim that there had been somewhere between 35 and 45 occasions of abuse.

He insisted there had been no more than 15, meaning the psychologically damaged victim had to give evidence at a disputed facts hearing.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson, who ultimately ruled in the boy's favour, referred to this on Thursday as she stripped Porter of some of the discount he would otherwise have received for pleading guilty.

The second victim's courage in coming forward meant Porter, who was in the process of grooming yet another Ainslie Football Club player at the time of his arrest, was stopped from physically abusing that child.

The 52-year-old also pleaded guilty to grooming the third boy, and to a charge of possessing child exploitation material.

Justice Loukas-Karlsson said the latter related to more than 1500 videos and images that depicted boys, some of them only infants, being abused by men or forced to perform sex acts with other children.

Seven impact statements from victims and members of their families were either tendered or read to the court in May, and the judge said on Thursday that they made clear "this is a human tragedy".

"There is inevitably a deep well of harm and suffering in this case," Justice Loukas-Karlsson said.

The judge added that it was important to tell the victims the shame some of them had expressed in their statements belonged not to them but to Porter, who appeared dishevelled but emotionless in the dock.

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She rejected claims he had been subjected to extracurial punishment by the "significant public attention" coverage of his case had generated, and the "inevitable" loss of his employment.

"It is a natural consequence of offending of this type," Justice Loukas-Karlsson said.

She also found Porter's paedophilic disorder reduced his moral culpability by only a limited degree, noting psychologist Patrick Newton had found the offender knew the wrongfulness of his actions.

With time already served on remand, Porter will become eligible for parole in May 2034.

"You must reflect, during that time that you are in prison, on the harm that you have caused," Justice Loukas-Karlsson told the 52-year-old before he was taken back to the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

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