A paedophile who prompted a royal commission into South Australia’s child protection system has been jailed for up to 35 years for sexually abusing seven children as young as 18 months old.

The District Court in Adelaide heard former government carer Shannon Grant McCoole was head administrator of a highly sophisticated, 1,000-member global child pornography website.

The 33-year-old’s crimes were uncovered in May last year when Danish police discovered images taken by McCoole of young children being sexually abused.

The seven victims included boys and girls aged between 18 months and three years — most were in state care and some had suffered neglect.

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McCoole’s non-parole period was 28 years.

The public gallery was full to witness the sentencing.

Judge Paul Rice told McCoole his offending was “evil and depraved” and “you have no moral compass”.

“You have to live with self inflicted infamy,” Judge Rice said.

“The impact on most of the children is not in the past, it is in the present and ongoing.”

Judge Rice told McCoole he was “very guarded about your long term prospects for rehabilitation” and on the subject of jail time, said “no doubt you will spend most of your time in a form of protection”.

“The nature of the offending was depraved and sickening in the extreme.”

He also said there had been a “marked increase in offending of this kind”.

One woman left the court after Judge Rice started detailing McCoole’s sexual acts against victims aged 18 months to three years.

The judge said McCoole’s victims also included a seven-year-old girl who was not in state care.

Families SA ‘failed with disastrous consequences’

Judge Rice told the court Families SA had “failed with disastrous consequences”.

The court previously heard McCoole’s employment with Families SA and Nanny SA from 2011 to 2014, included “primary care, behavioural control, household duties and general transportation”.

More than 50,000 images of child pornography were found on McCoole’s computer.

McCoole told the court that he hated himself for being a paedophile and had been attracted to children since a teenager, with a preference for girls aged between five and nine.

He pleaded guilty to 20 state and commonwealth charges related to sex with children and child pornography.

He had been caring for children at a government-run residential facility and out of school hours care service.

The discovery of McCoole’s offending led to the establishment of a royal commission into South Australia’s child protection system, headed by former Supreme Court justice Margaret Nyland.

The commission has accepted McCoole’s offer to provide oral evidence, with a date yet to be set for the hearing.

SA prosecutor Ian Press said McCoole’s behaviour “to some extent has redefined, in this state at least, the extent to which one person is willing to put their own sexual gratification before the interests of children in their care”.

Several family members of McCoole’s victims reveal their pain:

• “I feel betrayed by the system that was supposed to be caring for my grandchildren. This person should never have been in contact with any child.”
• “We have noticed many sexual things that didn’t seem right for their age.”
• “Maybe we all can rest a little easier knowing that one more predator is removed from society where he can no longer prey on innocent children and scar them for life.”
• “I lay awake at night crying and thinking where I went wrong and how I let my daughter down as a parent and couldn’t protect her from any harm.”
• “His criminal actions tore apart our everyday reality. It broke out hearts. It does not end.”
• “The lifetime of pain you have inflicted on so many others, for the sake of your sexual gratification, will never fade.”

A-G says sentence about punishment and deterrence

In a statement, Attorney-General John Rau said the sentence was “not only about punishment” but “also about deterrence”.

“Hopefully this will serve as a warning and we will never see a case like this again,” he said.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their families who experienced such unspeakable suffering.”

Education Department chief executive Tony Harrison said several measures had been implemented “within the context” of the royal commission since McCoole’s crimes came to light.

“We have tightened the recruitment and screening process for prospective staff and strengthened oversight of residential care facilities,” he said.

“Candidates for residential care positions now undergo a comprehensive psychological assessment process during recruitment, which includes a face-to-face interview with a registered psychologist.

“Specialist oversight teams are conducting around 500 scheduled and random visits of residential care facilities each month.”

Mr Harrison said an audit process had “rigorously assessed the employment suitability of the existing workforce”.

“An extra 120 [full-time equivalent] residential care staff are being recruited to improve the care and support provided to children in residential facilities.”

‘I’m a better person … I’m sorry,’ McCoole told court

The court heard McCoole came from a good family.

He told the court he thought he could control his paedophilic urges and said a fear of “being rejected and alone” stopped him from getting help.

He said it was “hard to explain or understand how I committed these crimes”.

“I have never been sexually abused myself or anything. I had a really good childhood, there is no reason for it,” he said.

“I have researched why the hell I am the way I am and I just don’t know.”

He said in communicating with others online, he thought he was “helping others like me when I was really hurting the children”.

“I should have been a stronger and better person … I’m so sorry.”

McCoole told the court he stopped physically offending after seeing the impact of sexual abuse on some of the children in his care, who were abused by another person.

“After working with them for nine months … they had become good kids and then two weeks after they moved back home they were abused by a random person again,” he said.

“It was when I made the decision to never ever do it again.”

McCoole’s lawyer, Ross Christoforou, said his client had been being doing it “very tough in prison”.

He said after being released from jail, McCoole wanted to help other young people deal with paedophilic urges.

– ABC