Aussie child welfare chief on child porn charge

April 21st, 2011 - 6:38 pm ICT by ANI  

Melbourne, Apr. 21 (ANI): A nationally recognized leader in Australia’s indigenous children’s services has been stood down after being charged with possessing child pornography.

Steve Larkins, the chief executive officer of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services (HACS), was arrested at the organization’s Tighes Hill headquarters on Tuesday afternoon after police raided it.

It is alleged police found images and videos on a computer drive of children performing sex acts, and the 44-year-old was subsequently charged with one count of producing, disseminating or possessing child abuse material.

Newcastle City detectives also seized “additional computer-related devices” from Larkins’s Mayfield home and sent them away for testing by specialist police in Sydney.

They will wait for a result on full forensic examinations of computer drives before deciding if other charges will be laid.

A Department of Family and Community Services spokeswoman said the charges were “a shock to the department and we take them very seriously”.

HACS is a non-government service that the department finances, and the department had been “informed by the services’ board that the employee has been stood down pending the police investigation”, the spokeswoman said. (ANI)

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