Philip Newsholme: Former Curtin University professor, 64, jailed for vile online child sex offending

A former Curtin University professor who groomed a pre-pubescent girl online and collected thousands of child sexual exploitation images has been jailed for five-and-a-half years. Philip Newsholme used social media apps including Snapchat and encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram to contact five people in the UK, Germany, India, Victoria and the US who he believed were young girls under 16. Police were only able to verify one of them as a real child — an 11-year-old girl from the US, who originally told the internationally renowned former Curtin head of biomedical sciences she was 13. The father-of-three told each of the five people that he was 22 and made “highly sexualised” comments, persistently grooming the American girl when she said she didn’t want to engage that way. The 64-year-old would often remark to other paedophiles who he swapped child abuse images and videos with that he only liked “little girls”. A tip-off to WA authorities came after he sent a naked video of himself to someone he believed was a child. And when police raided his home, they seized eight electronic devices containing 325 vile videos and 5498 images. “This is extremely serious offending,” District Court of WA Judge Gary Massey said in sentencing Newsholme on Monday. “You know that — you’re an intelligent man.” It was submitted that Newsholme started committing the crimes in 2019 after suffering a demotion and a life threatening heart condition that left him depressed and self-medicating with heavy alcohol abuse. But he initially confessed to police that it had started some four to five years earlier. Judge Massey also did not accept Newsholme’s claim to have no sexual interest in children now, saying he commented in an “enthusiastic” and “depraved” way when exchanging the disgusting material, which showed victims as young as three. He even used the university’s printer to print some of those images, the judge noted. Newsholm will be eligible for parole after serving three years and six months. Sexual Assault Resource Centre 1800 199 888 Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800