Professor Philip Newsholme, the former Head of Curtin’s School of Biomedical Sciences, has been charged with offences related to child exploitation material and grooming.
The 62-year-old, Oxford educated professor, who still teaches and conducts research at Curtin University, has been charged with:
- Eight counts of Possess Child Exploitation Material
- Three counts of Distributing Child Exploitation Material; and
- One count of Using Electronic Communications to Expose a Child Believed to be under 16 years to Indecent Matter.
According to The West Australian, on 27 May 2023, he appeared before the Perth Magistrates Court on 26 May 2023 for a bail hearing, where he was warned that he could face up to 50 extra charges as police continue to review the material found in his possession.
On Thursday 25 May 2023, CEO detectives executed a search warrant at Professor Newsholmes’s Como home, where he lived alone, seizing desktop computers, laptops, storage devices, mobile phones, and electronic devices.
Category one and two child abuse images and videos were allegedly found after an initial forensic triage was performed and his office at Curtin University was raided the following day, with police collecting his work computer and other devices.
The triage also confirmed that Professor Newsholme had been communicating with numerous children online, using messenger services such as SnapChat and Telegram to converse with young girls and expose them to indecent material, such as sending a nude picture of himself to a girl he believed was under 16 years old.
A photo which ended up linked to the tip-off that police received through Crime Stoppers.
Professor Newsholme was also accused of trying to elicit explicit material from children, as well as grooming, with the court told that he had formed a month-long relationship with an 11-year-old girl, telling her that he ‘loved her’ and that they were now a ‘girlfriend and boyfriend.’
Magistrate Andrew Maughan refused to give him bail because of the devices found in his home and because Newsholme had only made a partial admission to police – even though the professor had no criminal record and would follow any conditions.
CEO detectives have identified three children from Australia, the UK, and the US who had been targeted by Professor Newsholme, with investigations to uncover other victims ongoing.
“CEO’s Victim Identification Specialist will review the seized devices and liaise with national and international law enforcement partners to identify and rescue any further child victims, no matter where in the world they live,” WA Police said.
Professor Newsholme had allegedly told one online associate that he “really likes little girls aged between five and 12.”
Professor Newsholme was the Head of Biochemistry in UCD Dublin from September 2008 before moving to Perth in September 2011 to become a Professor and Head of School for Biomedical Sciences at Curtin University, which delivers courses in human biomedicine, molecular genetics and pharmacology.
He has published more than 120 research papers, 60 reviews and 12 book chapters, and was a member of the Editorial Board of Clinical Science, the Editorial advisory panel of the Biochemical Journal, the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Clinical Science (both based in London, UK), as well as the Australian Research Council college of experts in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology.
At Curtin, he currently leads a team investing the nutrient, immune and endocrine regulation of pancreatic beta cell function and integrity, its links with Alzheimer’s, as well as metabolic adaptations to nutritional supplementation in healthy and diabetic individuals.
Curtin University was unable to comment “as the matter is before the courts.”