Radio Brisvaani
ON THE surface, Daniel John Clancy looks every bit the successful young Aussie.
He is handsome, single, has a great career as a data scientist with one of Brisbane’s leading laboratories and is smart and well educated with degrees in maths and science.
He also has a wide circle of supportive friends and the love and respect of his family.
But below the surface lurks a man with an obsession for videos and photos showing adults sexually violating children.
Clancy’s veneer of respectability was ripped off on Tuesday when he faced Brisbane District Court to plead guilty to one charge of possessing child exploitation material.
His fall from grace began when police found the 36-year-old former Townsville man with two hard drives jam packed with pornographic material during a raid at his Greenslopes home in October last year.
The hard drives contained more than two million sexual images and videos, including a four-minute film of an adult male raping a 13-year-old girl.
As well as material showing real children being abused, there were thousands of animated and computer generated photos and films of adults harming kids.
The court heard Clancy initially denied owning the material but eventually relented and told police he found the child exploitation material while looking for adult pornography.
His family and friends watched as Judge Michael Shanahan told Clancy there was so many images and films in his possession that it was impossible for police to view every piece.
He said police estimated around 40 per cent were photos and 25 per cent were films.
Judge Shanahan said Clancy’s possession of child abuse material was not a victimless crime and that even the animated and CGI images and films resulted in real children being harmed down the line.
“It is fuelling the actual abuse of children,” Judge Shanahan said.
He noted that Clancy had no criminal record and that his family and friends were standing by him despite the offending.
Clancy was given two years’ probation during which he must attend behaviour change programs.
