WARNING: THIS STORY INCLUDES CONTENT THAT MAY DISTURB
For years Tom Sun Yap worked as a pediatrician helping police investigate child sexual abusers.
At the same time he was filing pictures of children being exploited in a folder called “Shopping”.
Yap’s explanation that his actions were an academic pursuit were rejected on Thursday as the 44-year-old was jailed over the child abuse material.
Queensland police found the pictures on Yap’s phone, laptop and a USB drive, along with A4-size prints during a search of his Sunshine Coast home on May 18 last year.
A total of 2079 images portrayed children aged four to 16, some obviously distressed.
The doctor had accessed the material online on 68 days over two years and seven months and saved files emailed to himself in the “Shopping” folder.
He saved adult pornography in a similar way.
Yap pleaded guilty to six offences committed over nearly five years while he was working at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
His role included forensic examinations of sexually abused children to help police catch perpetrators.
After his arrest Yap denied being sexually attracted to children, saying he stumbled on the material while looking at mainstream pornography.
He thought of his actions as a scientific project or continuing professional development.
But a psychiatrist found the academic pursuit explanation may be an attempt to rationalise his behaviour while the likely motivation was a sexual attraction.
“It is likely that your underlying anxious temperament and loneliness coupled with your depression and stress at work led to you using sexual behaviours … to cope,” Brisbane District Court judge Vicki Loury told Yap during sentencing.
She said real children were subject to appalling and depraved sexual acts to feed a market created by people like Yap.
“Frankly it is breathtaking that a man in such a position did not turn his mind to the harm that these children are subjected to,” she said.
The Malaysian-born Yap studied medicine in the UK before moving as a 30-year-old to Australia, becoming a consultant pediatrician in 2015.
Letters to the court described the shame Yap brought on his family, defence barrister Ben Power KC said.
“He physically kowtowed to his mother when they were able to come to Australia,” he said.
The court heard Yap, who is no longer registered as a doctor, diligently treated many patients, voluntarily helped pediatric trainees and was well respected by colleagues.
Judge Loury sentenced Yap to two-and-a-half years behind bars, ordering he be released on probation after serving four months.
He will also be required to pay a $2000 good behaviour bond.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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