By Jacqueline Le – The Age
An Anglican priest caught boasting online about his child sex abuse fantasies has been convicted but will not spend any time in prison.
Former Sunshine vicar Philip John Murphy, 53, was on Friday given a wholly suspended 12-month jail sentence after he was caught engaging in sexually explicit online chats about children.
The priest had pleaded guilty earlier this week in the Victorian County Court to transmitting child pornography material using a carriage service between 2016 and 2017.
Judge Phillip Coish said the priest’s crime did not involve real children.
“I accept that there was no sexual activity with children, nor were there any photos or videos involved in these communications,” he said.
Murphy was working at a parish in East Burwood when he began chatting online about his child sex abuse fantasies.
Under the username “Pervert”, Murphy approached multiple men on Grindr and asked them if they were interested in children and arranged to chat to them on Skype.
Murphy even sent photos of himself in his clerical collar to gain trust.
In one conversation, Murphy offered to get a motel so he could sexually abuse a boy.
“Can’t host I’m afraid. Church house. Can get motel,” he wrote on December 29, 2016.
Two months later, Murphy told another man he was “loyal” to the Anglican Church.
“Well you know my work and I have to be discreet. And other than abusing the trust of the Church in this matter, am loyal,” he said.
Murphy also told one man that he wanted to sexually abuse hundreds of children as young as two years old.
“The communications were grossly offensive and deeply disturbing,” Judge Coish said.
Police searched Murphy’s laptop in February 2017 when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong.
In August police searched his home and Holy Apostles’ Anglican Church in Sunshine West, before charging him with multiple child pornography offences.
During his police interview, Murphy said he was drawn to the online chats because of his depression.
He also told police he did not realise his chats constituted child pornography material.
The prosecution had pushed for an immediate jail sentence, but Judge Coish on Friday said he had decided it was appropriate Murphy be released.
Murphy has also been ordered to undertake a sex offender program and be of good behaviour.
– The Age
