Child Porn Term Cut
Newcastle Herald
Friday February 29, 2008
A HUNTER man has used appeal court leniency shown to disgraced Crown prosecutor Patrick Power to have his own jail term reduced for possessing child pornography.
Mark Anthony Fishburn, 51, a nurse, of Main Road, Mulbring, successfully appealed in East Maitland District Court yesterday against the severity of a 12-month jail sentence, including nine months non-parole, which he received in Kurri Kurri Local Court on November 16 last year when convicted of possessing child pornography.Fishburn admitted in the local court to having more than 64,000 sexual images on his home computer.Of these, police found 336 with children involved in a variety of sex acts.Fishburn's appeal documents tendered to the court said Power received a 15-month jail term, with an eight month non-parole period, when convicted in May last year of possessing child pornography.On appeal to the District Court last July, Power's non-parole term was cut to six months.Power, 55, was the NSW deputy Crown prosecutor in 2006 when 29,000 pornographic images, including more than 460 involving children, were found on his personal computer.Solicitor Adrian Kiely, for Fishburn, asked Judge Robert Hulme to reduce his client's non-parole period in line with Power's.Upholding the appeal and reducing Fishburn's non-parole period to six months, Judge Hulme said both cases involved an enormous number of images and he was particularly concerned about how many children were involved.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald