Ben McCormack spared jail over child porn charges

Former Channel Nine reporter Ben McCormack has been spared from jail after pleading guilty to two counts of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child pornography.

The judge released McCormack on a three-year good behaviour bond and fined him $1000 for his crimes.

McCormack pleaded guilty to the offences in September. He admitted to speaking with an unnamed man about child pornographer over Skype and text messages for two years.

The pair watched pornography together and exchanged sexual images involving children.

In one conversation shown to the court, the man asked McCormack if he thought he’d always “be a p”, to which the reporter answered, “Yep, U … I’ll always have the attraction … They are beautiful”.

Former Channel Nine Reporter Ben McCormack has arrived in Court. Despite facing a maximum of 15 years in jail, the judge indicated McCormack is unlikely to receive jail time. #7News pic.twitter.com/5GdSIIe8fq

— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) December 5, 2017

Earlier, the judge said McCormack’s crimes must be viewed at the lower end of the scale because he had never acted on his urges and had sought medical treatment prior to his arrest.

Judge Conlon acknowledged McCormack was plagued with self-loathing and had tried to commit suicide twice since his arrest.

His lawyer Sam Macedon said that McCormack’s “main concern isn’t so much what he has to go through but what he is putting his family through.”

McCormack was suspended from his role at the Nine Network following raids on his home and network’s Willoughby offices in Sydney after his arrest in April.

The charges against him all carried at maximum sentence of seven-and-a-half years.

What are your thoughts on the sentence?