Wa: Chaplain Claims Child Porn a Set-Up

Australian Teacher Magazine
October 17, 2012

ozteacher.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2150:wa-chaplain-claims-child-porn-a-set-up&catid=1:news&Itemid=69


PERTH, Oct 16 - A former school chaplain on trial for child pornography offences has told a court he believes someone set him up but denied he was trying to implicate three men connected to the school.

Matthew David O'Meara, 42, is on trial in the WA District Court on four child pornography charges related to explicit images and video files on two thumb drives.

The married father of two had been working as a chaplain at Perth College for nearly eight months in 2010 before he was charged and fired from the school.

The court has heard that one thumb drive was found by a teacher on her desk in August 2010 and the other was seized by police from O'Meara's trouser pocket during a search of his office.

Asked by his lawyer Laurie Levy on Tuesday whether he had ever downloaded child pornography, O'Meara shook his head at the jury and replied: "No, I have not."

O'Meara mentioned two former colleagues and a former colleague's husband, but he denied he was implying that they may have had something to do with the pornography.

Under cross-examination, O'Meara said he asked a man from the school's IT department to set up an internet connection at his home and left him alone for five to 10 minutes.

That man later examined the first thumb drive found and handed it in to the school principal, which led to charges being laid.

O'Meara also testified that when he got the chaplain's job and moved into the house across the road from the school, the deputy principal and her husband had to move out.

Despite tension over the matter, O'Meara said the husband had still sought his advice about suspicions his wife was having an affair.

Following several heated exchanges during cross-examination in which prosecutor Linda Keane accused O'Meara of lying, he replied: "I put my hand on the Bible. It's a far bigger authority than you."

O'Meara told the court he continued using an Optus internet account at home without realising until some time later that it was the former deputy principal's husband's user name because he never noticed the information on the bill and did not use the email address provided by Optus.

O'Meara also testified that he had a confrontation with an associate chaplain at the school for using his log-in details on the school computer.

Asked why he did not change his password or report the matter, O'Meara replied: "I thought it would be paranoid to do so."

"There was no reason to suspect that there was an issue going on at that time."

Keane suggested O'Meara was concocting a conspiracy theory about the three men, but O'Meara said he was simply stating facts that others had access to his computers and was not trying to blame anyone specifically.

"I'm an incredibly trusting person, obviously to my detriment," he said.

Two of O'Meara's friends, a schoolmate who has known him since 1985 and a former nun, gave evidence about his "impeccable character" and said he had always been held in the highest regard.

The trial before Judge Allan Fenbury and a jury continues.