www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18748877-421,00.htmlMan jailed for boy-sex stories
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By Rebecca Hewett
April 08, 2006
IN WHAT is considered a Territory first, a man has been sent to jail for possessing fictional text stories about sex with children.
Former senior public servant Nick Gill was sentenced to 14 days' jail, suspended on the rising of the court, and fined $3000 after being found guilty of having 66 stories, featuring mostly young boys, on his desktop computer.
There were no images involved in the case.
Magistrate Daynor Trigg said he believed it was the first case of its kind.
"I'm not aware of any similar case to come before the courts in my time," he said.
"The majority (of other cases) do involve images."
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Gill, the former director of the Health and Community Services Department's alcohol and other drugs unit, had admitted having an interest in pornography featuring sado-masochism and humiliation.
But he told the court he found child pornography "abhorrent".
The 57-year old said he allowed the stories to stay on his computer because he did not know text files, like images, could be illegal.
Mr Trigg rejected Gill's evidence but agreed it was at the lower end of the scale."
"It should be obvious to any person that material like this is legally and morally wrong and taboo in the Northern Territory and Australia generally," the magistrate said.
Mr Trigg said the danger of the stories was they "create the perception that this might be acceptable."
"There is also the potential that the written word may encourage someone to act out what they've read," he said.
