A reporter from the Nine Network’s A Current Affair program has been charged with sending child abuse material after police raided the network’s Sydney offices.
Police will allege Ben McCormack spoke about children in a sexually explicit way in conversations with another man and discussed child pornography.
He said nothing as he left Redfern police station with his lawyer Sam Macedone on Thursday night.
Police say he was arrested after being stopped in a car at Moore Park about 7.30am on Thursday.
Shortly after, search warrants were executed at a unit in Alexandra and A Current Affair’s office at Willoughby, where computers, a mobile phone and electronic storage devices were seized.
A Nine Network spokesman said A Current Affair staff are co-operating fully with the investigation.
“The matter is a personal one and not related to a story or the program,” he told AAP.
McCormack has been charged with using a carriage service for child pornography material.
He has been granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on May 1.
A Current Affair presenter Leila McKinnon acknowledged the charges at the start of the show on Thursday night, saying McCormack had been suspended.
She said the show had a long history of pursuing offenders and intended to cover the case of one of their “most senior reporters” without “fear or favour”.