Teacher's porn viewing a cry for help: court

A former Wollongong High School teacher's compulsion to view internet pornography - including child pornography - was a cry for help, Wollongong Local Court heard yesterday.Robert Andrew Dunwoodie apologised for the anguish he put students and parents through as a result of his arrest - and acknowledged his actions had tarnished the teaching profession.For the first time, Dunwoodie, 44, publicly told how he came to access 612 child pornography images on his home computer between January and June 2008.He said he had suffered depression over several years and became engrossed in adult pornography.During the course of viewing the "trillions" of legal images Dunwoodie said he saw over the years, he stumbled upon child pornography."There was a legal site and (it had the word or) something like 'teens', it didn't have anything more than that," he said. "With my curiosity I opened up several of those."Dunwoodie said he was shocked at what he saw and instantly realised he could be in trouble for viewing that sort of illicit material."I thought my career is over, my life is over," he said. "I expected (the police) to come and arrest me the next day."Dunwoodie said he was feeling depressed and suicidal the next time he accessed illegal images."I decided I would come up with a better plan and would access this child pornography and get someone to come and arrest me," he said. "It was a cry for help."Dunwoodie told the court he did not seek out child pornography and was not aroused by it, but kept finding it while looking at other types of pornography."It was an escape, it was another realm," he said.Later he said he did not really look at the content of the images he sought out."I was challenging what I could find and access," he said.The Figtree man pleaded guilty to knowingly accessing child pornography in December last year.Dunwoodie conceded yesterday that he had tarnished the teaching profession by his actions."I know the girls at Wollongong High School were taken aside and questioned in detail about whether I had sexually assaulted them," he said."I know the anguish (this has caused) many parents."I'm sorry the teaching profession has been tarnished by me."I was placed in a position of trust and I let that down."Dunwoodie said he had never saved or disseminated any images and gained no sexual gratification from images of pre-pubescent children.Dunwoodie is due back in court on April 3 for sentencing.