A primary school teacher who was caught in the same paedophile sting as A Current Affair reporter Ben McCormack has been jailed.
Mathew Paul Reale pleaded guilty to 12 charges including nine counts of distributing child exploitation and producing child exploitation material, WAtoday reported.
The 30-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday at the Western Australia District Court, where the judge described his offences as ‘horrific and disturbing’.
Mathew Paul Real (pictured) pleaded guilty to 12 charges including nine counts of disturbing child exploitation and producing child exploitation material
The 30-year-old was sentenced to four years’ jail on Friday at the Western Australia District Court, where the judge described his offences as ‘horrific and disturbing’
The court heard Reale’s computer and other electronic devices contained 34,953 images and 2,599 videos of children being sexually assaulted, gagged, and restrained.
The police search revealed several messages between Reale and other paedophiles where he spoke about abducting, raping and drugging children, as well as babysitting children with plans to abuse and film the ordeal.
The court heard none of the children Reale came in contact with were the subject of any abuse, but he did send a photo of one student in a school uniform to the other paedophiles in the group, the publication reported.
Reale’s defence lawyer Abigail Rogers told the court that her client ‘struggles to comprehend how he’s got down to this level’.
‘He accepts that role playing was abhorrent,’ she said on Friday.
Prosecutor Katrin Robinson told the court that Reale would have known what he was doing due to the seriousness of the matter.
‘It was ongoing…he has a deviant sexual interest in children,’ she said.
Judge Kathleen Glancy said despite Reale not directly abusing the children, he had still encouraged others to engage in serious and vile matters.
‘You are part of a group of people who did hurt children,’ she said.
‘You present a high risk to children in the community.
Prosecutor Katrin Robinson told the court that Reale would have known what he was doing due to the seriousness of the matter
Reale’s sentence was backdated to February last year which now makes him eligible for parole after serving two years.
Reale had previously exchanged text messages with McCormack where they discussed the drugging and raping of children.
Last year, Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed former bank and hotel worker Leon Mario Berger, 36, was one of two Perth men the TV reporter spoke with about his child sex fantasies.
In May, Judge Patrick Brian O’Neal sentenced Berger after he pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material, including photos and video.
The court heard Berger was charged as a result of a police investigation into the ‘boy lover’ Nine Network journalist. They were arrested on the same day in April 2017.
Berger sent perverted messages to the journalist and Catholic primary school teacher Mathew Paul Reale. He received vile images from the latter, who he had a ‘crush’ on, and also had a video in his possession.
‘I would do it with babies if I could’, Berger said, according to depraved messages that were read to the court in February.
Reale had previously exchanged text messages with McCormack (pictured) where they discussed the drugging and raping of children.
Last year, Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed former bank and hotel worker Leon Mario Berger (pictured), 36, was one of two Perth men the TV reporter spoke with about his child sex fantasies.
Berger first met Reale – who is awaiting sentencing on a long list of offences – by using the paedophile Tribe website. The pair later met up and had a sexual relationship.
Judge O’Neal said the material found in Berger’s possession was ‘especially graphic and disturbing… (and) particularly depraved’.
He said it was ‘difficult to avoid a sensation of revulsion’ at how he characterised his child sex offending.
‘It is confronting in the extreme,’ he said. ‘I don’t accept the excuse you have offered. I don’t accept you were a passive recipient’.
Handing down his jail sentence, the judge said he accepted Berger had remorse, but ‘a great part of that is about feeling sorry for yourself.
The judge did not suspend the jail sentence, pointing out he had declined to treat his paedophilic disorder.
Berger will be eligible for parole in October.
McCormack (pictured) described himself as a ‘proud b (boy) lover’ in messages, which were mostly exchanged with Reale.
The punishment is more severe than that faced by McCormack in a separate court. The reporter was charged for possessing child pornography text messages, but no photographs or video.
His career in tatters, McCormack was given a three year, $1000 good behaviour bond by NSW District Court Judge Paul Conlon last December.
McCormack described himself as a ‘proud b (boy) lover’ in messages, which were mostly exchanged with Reale. He has since moved and is trying to move on with his life, sources said.