Businessman jailed over horror stash

A renowned businessman has copped a massive jail term for his depraved exploitation of children, with a furious judge describing his criminality as “disgraceful to the extreme”.

Philip David Andrews, the former boss of Gasworks Unley in Adelaide, was sentenced to eight years in prison for knowingly accessing and disseminating child exploitation material.

Judge Anthony Allen, in his sentencing remarks, told the court Mr Andrews possessed 2451 files of child exploitation material, including videos that he exchanged with other pedophiles on encrypted channels.

Between October 10 and October 12, 2023, the court was told Mr Andrews disseminated 190 child abuse videos and received 156 videos in exchange, part of a gross pattern of distribution and exchange that he participated in from September 2023 to November that year.

Judge Allen said to call the material “confronting” would be the “grossest of understatements”.

“That human beings treat small children in such a way really beggars belief,” he said.

“You created a market for this material by collecting it.

“The fact you would perpetuate the misery of innocent children by disseminating this material is disgraceful to the extreme.”

Mr Andrews wept from the remand centre as Judge Allen read out his remarks.

Mr Andrews’ crimes were uncovered by an covert online police officer on Telegram, the court was told.

An investigation of search terms on Mr Andrews’ devices revealed he had searched for “pre teen nude pics” and “pre teen videos”.

The police arrested Mr Andrews at his home in November 2023 and he has been in jail since August 1 this year.

Mr Andrews has denied he is a pedophile, telling a psychologist: “I had a look at some stuff, but it doesn’t mean I am a pedophile … I was just looking.”

Judge Allen expressed contempt for Mr Andrews’ “obvious lack of insight”.

“This lack of insight means your prospects for rehabilitation must be considered somewhat guarded,” he said.

Judge Allen said Mr Andrews had been a good father to his three children and had volunteered in various roles to help in their development.

He added Mr Andrews’ offending occurred in the context of “constellation of stresses”, including a marriage breakdown and work difficulties.

Mr Andrews completed Year 12, TAFE studies and a course in business management from the University of South Australia.

In delivering his final sentence, Judge Allen stressed “general deterrence is the primary sentencing consideration” for child abuse material.

“There is a paramount public interest objective in promoting the protection of children,” he said.

Judge Allen sentenced Mr Andrews’ to eight years in prison with a non-parole period of six years and six months.