Child psychiatrist's good standing enabled patient sex abuse, court told

A WA judge has warned a former Perth child psychiatrist who sexually abused his young patients and later filmed boys in public toilets he will be going to prison.

WARNING: This story contains details that may distress some readers. 

Benjamin Wen, 52, touched the boys’ genitals on the pretext of conducting “puberty checks” he said were routine, but the WA District Court heard it was not necessary for a psychiatrist to perform such checks.

Wen was found guilty in April of multiple charges, including indecent dealing with a child under 13, and persistent sexual conduct with a child under 16, with the offences occurring more than 10 years ago.

In 2017 he was given a suspended sentence for making videos of boys urinating in public toilets.

Wen, who was previously known as Aaron Voon, had made the videos in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Perth.

Parents of boys who had been Voon's patients contacted WA police following the publicity surrounding that case.

During sentencing submissions on Monday, the court heard Wen had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, neuralgia, ASD, PTSD and OCD and his time in prison would be harder than it would be for a "normal prisoner".

'Abuse of trust'

But prosecutor Tracy Tan said Wen used the trust placed in him to "repeatedly" offend against children in his care.

Ms Tan said his "abuse of trust" had impacted on his victims, who were neurodivergent, and their families.

She said Wen did not appear to accept the offending, as he still seemed to maintain his actions were "medically warranted".

This showed he was not remorseful, Ms Tan told the court.

Enabling offending

The prosecutor targeted a defence submission suggesting the judge should consider the good Wen had done in treating more than 500 patients, aside from the victims.

Ms Tan told the court "it was precisely that good standing" that enabled the offending, and "little mitigation" turned on that.

She said the matters to do with Wen's health were the only ones that should be considered in mitigation.

Wen's lawyer Patti Chong said Wen was likely to experience "disproportionately more suffering" and his mobility was "vastly impaired".

She told the court his health issues warranted a significant sentence reduction and called on the judge not to impose a "crushing sentence".

Judge Linda Petrusa said her sentencing remarks were likely to take some time, and the matter was adjourned until Wednesday.

But she warned Wen a term of immediate imprisonment would be imposed.