Child porn priest taped SBS shows

A Catholic priest who possessed child pornography bought some material to understand the concept of pedophilia, an Adelaide court has been told.

Sophie David, for Father Stanislaus Hogan, also said two of the five videos seized from her client were taped from SBS educative TV programs, but were classified by authorities as being in the most serious child pornography category.

Hogan, 69, has pleaded guilty to an aggravated count of possessing child pornography and a count of using a carriage service to access child pornography at Athelstone between April 20 and June 10 2012.

The 1555 images were found in his bedroom at St Ignatius' College, where police also located magazines and videos which Ms David said were bought legally in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The ages of the children ranged between three and 16 years.

More than 70 per cent of the images were in the least serious category involving no sexual activity, but five images and two videos were in category five, the most serious.

On Monday, Ms David said those two videos were taped off SBS and were classified for TV, noting they were so antiquated that there was no suitable equipment in the house to play them on.

She said some books found by police were bought by Hogan "to understand the concept of sexual behaviour and pedophilia".

She previously told the court the priest had struggled to reconcile his sexuality with his Jesuit beliefs.

Prosecutor Scott Swain has said Hogan's main interest was in images of boys in the low-to-mid teens, the very age range of children at the school where he was employed.

Ms David has urged the judge to impose a suspended jail term, but Mr Swain said such a sentence would be "manifestly inadequate".

Judge Peter Brebner asked the prosecution to provide more information, including how many times Hogan downloaded material between April 20 and June 10, and the categories of the images downloaded.

He continued Hogan's bail and has yet to fix the sentencing date.