Australian Author of Jasper Jones Gets Seven Months in Jail Over Abuse Material

Craig Silvey, the Australian author behind the acclaimed novel Jasper Jones, was sentenced Monday to seven months in jail for distributing and possessing child exploitation material, the Guardian and the BBC reported. The sentence was handed down in the Western Australian district court.

Silvey, 44, had pleaded guilty. The judge, Hayley Cormann, described the offending as very serious and said it harms real children. Publishers have already stopped promoting his books, and many have been pulled from shelves and reading lists.

What the court heard

According to the BBC, police raided Silvey's home in Western Australia and seized several electronic devices. The Guardian reported that officers found numerous category one photos and videos of children, along with explicit images of adults, on his laptop and mobile phone.

The court also heard about online conversations. The Guardian said Silvey chatted with another user on a pornography website and then moved to an encrypted messaging app, where he expressed sexual interest in young boys. The BBC reported that the conversations were still open on his devices when police arrived and that they referred to children as young as five.

He was first charged with four offenses. Prosecutors later dropped two charges that involved producing and possessing further material, the Guardian reported. The BBC said he was jailed in October pending his sentencing.

The prosecution's argument

Prosecutors told the court that Silvey contributed to what they called a “cycle of abuse” that victimizes the children shown in such images, the BBC reported. They argued that a harsh sentence was needed.

The defense's argument

Silvey's lawyer, Eloise Barker, told the court he did not have a sexual interest in children, the BBC reported. She said he sought out the material as a form of emotional self-harm and that it gave him temporary relief from psychological agitation.

Barker also said he had shown genuine remorse. She argued that his high profile and the resulting media scrutiny, which led his former partner and their children to move interstate, were already a form of punishment.

How the judge ruled

Cormann did not accept many of the defense arguments, according to the BBC. She said the children in such material are real and traumatized, and that the consequences for them are long lasting. She told Silvey he had betrayed the trust of thousands of people and let down entire communities, as quoted by WA Today.

The seven-month sentence is backdated to Oct. 22, and Silvey is eligible for parole, the BBC reported.

What's at stake for his work and readers

Jasper Jones, published in 2009, is considered a modern Australian classic, the Guardian said. The BBC reported it sold more than half a million copies, won the Book of the Year Award from the country's peak publishing body in 2010 and was adapted into a film and a stage play. His children's novel Runt was also made into a film.

Since the arrest, publishers and bookshops have removed his titles, and schools in some states have taken Jasper Jones off teaching lists, the BBC said. The Guardian reported that publishers Allen & Unwin and Fremantle Press stopped promoting his books after he was charged and that most of his titles have been removed from reading lists nationwide.

For parents, teachers and librarians in Australia, the case means one of the country's best-known young adult authors is no longer available through many of the usual channels. Silvey had also been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the International Dublin Literary Award.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Guardian, BBC News