WA police probing arson found child porn

POLICE investigating a suspected arson attack on a Perth home discovered child exploitation material on a man’s phone after he asked officers to retrieve the device.

Adam Raymond Lynch, 50, was caught with more than a dozen images in March 2017, but lied to officers, saying he had stolen the phone a week earlier.

Lynch eventually pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material and was sentenced in the WA District Court on Monday to nine months in prison, suspended for 12 months with a supervision and program requirement.

Judge Belinda Lonsdale accepted Lynch was remorseful and ashamed over his “relatively unsophisticated” crime.

The court heard Lynch’s criminal history included child sex convictions in 2005 for which he was sentenced to 20 months in jail.

He then became a reportable offender and was subsequently convicted five times for failing to comply with his reporting obligations.

Judge Lonsdale said Lynch clearly had problems with alcohol and substance abuse.

“It is of grave concern Mr Lynch that you do not view your usage of methylamphetamine as problematic,” she said.

Judge Lonsdale said she had decided “by the narrowest of margins” that Lynch’s prison term should be suspended, but warned him a breach could result in him returning behind bars.