Queensland priest jailed for nude photos of boy

With the power of priesthood and under the guise of artistic intent, Michael Ambrose Endicott took schoolboys to secluded locations, told them to strip nude and took photos.

Almost 40 years later, he will see the inside of a jail cell.

Endicott, 75, was found guilty last week of three counts of indecently dealing with the Villanova College student while he was in charge of religious education at the Brisbane school in the 1970s.

On Monday, he was handed a 18-month jail sentence, to be suspended after he serves six months.

He avoided jail in 2010 when he was handed a wholly suspended sentence for the similar abuse of another boy.

The victim was first abused on a school hiking trip in 1975 when Endicott asked the nine-year-old to accompany him to a creek area in dense bush, where he photographed the student naked.

Endicott told him: "There's nothing to worry about. It's okay. You're doing a good job."

Three years later, Endicott abused him in the school tower. Again, the boy was photographed naked.

Years later, when the boy was a teenager, Endicott took him into a change room and told him to strip when photos were taken of him in the shower.

"(The victim) said: 'at school, priests ruled. They have absolute power over everything' and he dared not speak out against them," crown prosecutor Russell Clutterbuck said.

Through his barrister, Endicott claimed the photos were "artistic" rather than sexual and he was "taking photos of nude boys as an expression of his photographic interest".

He claimed his victims weren't coerced or sworn to secrecy and that a developmental disorder hindered his ability to understand what he was doing was wrong.

"In the scheme of things, there are many, many worse photographs that he could have taken," defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said.

Judge Leanne Clare SC rejected those arguments.

"The prisoner deliberately manipulated a young child under his care. It was exploitation of his position of authority and the gross imbalance of power," she said.

"This man was walking around the child, who was completely naked, taking photographs of him from the front and back.

"I don''t understand how that sounds artistic."

Mr Eberhardt said Endicott believed the victim was consenting.

The court heard a psychologist's report found he was on the spectrum of autism, meaning he had trouble reading social cues.

The report said he would have struggled to understand how his behaviour was harmful.

It also said he "was vulnerable to intrusive sexual behaviours with students because of his inability to read appropriate social cues".

Judge Clare said he had no remorse for his "substantial" crimes.

"(The victim) is still burdened by deep shame. I have no doubt knowing his degradation was preserved on film has haunted most of his life," she said.

"Any person who is inclined to harm a child should expect that one day the law will catch up with him or her."