Australian children’s author Craig Silvey has been sentenced to seven months in jail for possessing and distributing child exploitation material.
In handing down her sentence, Judge Hayley Cormann called Silvey’s actions “repulsive” and “degrading”.
In January, Silvey was arrested after police raided his home in Western Australia and seized several electronic devices. In May, the 44-year-old pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material and in October he was jailed pending his sentencing.
The father-of-three is best known for his award-winning young adult novel Jasper Jones and children’s book Runt, both of which were later made into movies.
“You have devastated and betrayed the trust of thousands of people, and you’ve let entire communities down,” Cormann said on Monday, according to WA Today.
Police said Silvey had online chats, in which he discussed child exploitation, open at the moment they turned up to raid his house.
In them, the court heard, Silvey had described himself as “extremely open minded” and “obsessed with taboos”.
He’d discussed his sexual interest in children as young as five with another user of a pornography site, and detectives found images and videos of other adults abusing children on his devices.
He was initially charged with four offences, but prosecutors later dropped two.
Prosecutors said Silvey contributed to the “cycle of abuse” victimising the children in the images, and argued a harsh sentence was required.
However, the author’s defence lawyer said he did not have a “sexual interest in children” and was seeking out “the most depraved material” as a form of “emotional” self harm.
“His behaviour provided temporary relief from psychological agitation,” Eloise Barker said.
She said Silvey had displayed genuine remorse for his offending, and that his high profile and the resulting media scrutiny – which lead to his former partner and children relocating interstate – was already a form of punishment.
Judge Cormann did not accept many of her arguments, and said Silvey’s offending was extremely serious.
“These children, the victims of this type of offending, are real and are traumatised… the consequences for them from these abuses are long lasting and very, very traumatic,” she said, according to The Australian.
Silvey was sentenced to seven months in jail, backdated to 22 October. He is eligible for parole.
Silvey’s coming-of-age novel Jasper Jones sold more than half a million copies and was awarded the Book of the Year Award by the nation’s peak publishing body in 2010.
The novel, set in Western Australia with two teenage boys as the main characters, was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Awards and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
It was later turned into a film starring Toni Collette and Hugo Weaving in 2017 as well as a stage play.
Another of his acclaimed works is 2022’s Runt, about the adventures of an 11-year-old girl and her stray dog and set in the Australia outback. It was also adapted for film in 2024, featuring Celeste Barber.
Since his arrest, publishers and book shops have pulled his works from shelves while schools in some states have removed Jasper’s books from teaching lists.
