A former university lecturer who used the internet to groom a child for sex, wants to be bailed, after three years on remand, to move in with his brother - who happens to live across the road from a primary school.
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Augusto Tamayo-Del-Solar's legal team say their client doesn't seek to be released until the Christmas holidays have begun.
But the prosecution says it's unclear whether the school, which is in the Sydney suburb of Concord, runs after school programs, and the location is “of great concern”.
The 61-year-old man has been locked up on remand at the Alexander Maconochie Centre for almost three years.
Tamayo-Del-Solar was caught up in a police sting after allegedly grooming an 11-year-old for sex over the internet.
A federal agent, posing as the girl, took up the conversation and sent messages to the defendant about her end of year party.
In December 2009 they arranged to meet outside the Florey shops, where Tamayo-Del-Solar was arrested in possession of a pizza, coke, a bottle of sparkling wine and condoms.
A search of his work later turned up explicit images of Tamayo-Del-Solar with an eight-year-old girl.
He pleaded guilty to procuring a child for sex, two counts of committing acts of indecency, using a child to produce pornography and possession child pornography.
But he denied committing an act of indecency on an 11-year-old in February 2009.
Tamayo-Del-Solar is accused of putting his hand down the girl's pants as the drove to an outing at a fast-food restaurant.
Justice Richard Refshauge heard the judge-alone trial in June last year and reserved his decision, with judgment yet to be handed down.
Tamayo-Del-Solar has been in custody since December 2009 but, as a remandee, he has no access to counselling programs to address his child sex offending.
His barrister, Theresa Warwick, said given her client's lack of a criminal record and based on similar cases he was unlikely to be given a non-parole period longer than the time he has already served.
She asked Justice Refshauge to bail her client at the beginning of the school holiday to await judgment and sentence, with a warning he could yet spend more time in custody.
Ms Warwick said Tamayo-Del-Solar would consent to a bail condition banning him from being alone with a child.
But acting Detective Sergeant Rachel Batterham told the ACT Supreme Court a Google Maps search revealed the proposed address was just 50 metres from a primary school.
The police officer, a former member of ACT Policing's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team, said she was concerned Tamayo-Del-Solar, as an untreated sex offender living across the road from a school, might re-offend.
Prosecutor Margaret Jones said it was more appropriate Tamayo-Del-Solar's eventual release from custody be as a sentenced prisoner, not on bail.
She argued releasing him now would “in my submission present a large risk to the community”.
“Given that he is an untreated sex offender there is, on the face of it, a high risk of reoffending,” Ms Jones said.
Ms Warwick, however, noted there was no scope for preventative detention under territory law.
Justice Richard Refshauge adjourned the bail application to later this month, and ordered pre-sentence and sex offender program assessment reports prepared.
