Ex-Emanuel School employee pleads guilty
Dean Kaplan, who worked as a fitness instructor at Sydney's Emanuel School, entered guilty pleas to three child exploitation charges on Tuesday.
FORMER Emanuel School fitness trainer Dean Kaplan has pleaded guilty to three charges of child exploitation in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court.
Kaplan, 36, who had been accused of saving more than 1000 images of children in sexual poses, was stood down from Emanuel in June last year following his arrest.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to three charges; possession of child abuse material, using a carriage service to access child abuse material and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material to himself.
According to News Corp, Kaplan told Australian Federal Police officers he trawled the internet to find abusive material so he could report them to authorities.
“For the past 22 years he probably accrued thousands of images and did not look at these images but just had it in an archive in case he reported it and was ever asked about it,” the agreed facts tendered in court state.
Officers discovered more than 1200 images and videos on two USBs and a hard drive seized from Kaplan’s Kensington unit on June 20, 2019.
Kaplan was arrested after the AFP received a tip from the United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in relation to his online activities.
He had worked as a fitness instructor at Emanuel School since 2016.
In a letter to parents last year, the school said it takes the health and wellbeing of its students “extremely seriously”, adding, “The Australian Federal Police have assured us that the charges do not involve any current or former Emanuel students.
“There is no suggestion that any inappropriate activity occurred on school grounds or at school events.”
Kaplan will next appear in court on July 17.
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