{"id":701825,"date":"2026-05-29T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701825\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:51:12","slug":"award-winning-volunteer-jamal-box-bailed-on-child-abuse-image-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701825\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning volunteer Jamal Box bailed on child-abuse image charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former police staffer and lauded SES volunteer has been granted strict bail on a charge of possessing child-abuse images collected over a quarter of a century.<\/p>\n

Jamal Box, 39, fronted Newcastle bail court today charged with one count of possess child-abuse material.<\/p>\n

He was arrested early on Thursday at his Cameron Park home, where police conducted a search.<\/p>\n

Today Judge James Viney told the court they found thousands of images in a locked folder on a phone.<\/p>\n

“He let police look at them and stated he had them [the images and videos] for the last 25 years,” Judge Viney said.<\/p>\n

“They unlocked the folder containing the 52,000 images and videos and it was predominantly related to sex content.”\"Outside<\/p>\n

Jamal Box was charged at Belmont Police Station on Thursday.\u00a0 (ABC News: Lillian Watkins)<\/p>\n

The court heard a further five mobile phones and eight laptops were taken away for forensic testing.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor opposes bail<\/p>\n

The police prosecutor said the material already viewed was “damaging and disturbing” and “the initial number of images will continue to rise”.<\/p>\n

In applying for bail, defence solicitor Chris O’Brien said police had only seen 50 images or videos of concern.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Brien said his client was “vulnerable” and had mental health problems.<\/p>\n

“He is a First Nations man, he speaks to me about childhood assaults,” Mr O’Brien said.<\/p>\n

“I do agree it is a strong prosecution case, but there may be other matters of concern and full-time custody is not inevitable.”<\/p>\n

Volunteer of the Year<\/p>\n

The court heard Mr Box had been employed on a full-time basis and also had a voluntary role.<\/p>\n

Due to his work with the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) he was named Lake Macquarie City Council’s Volunteer of the Year for 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Jamal Box was named Lake Macquarie Council’s 2026 Volunteer of Year. \u00a0 (Supplied: Lake Macquarie City Council)<\/p>\n

The council today released a statement after learning of the charge against Mr Box.<\/p>\n

“While the individual concerned is entitled to due process, the allegations are extremely serious,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“We will work with our Lake Mac Awards Committee, staff, sponsors and the community to reinforce trust in, and the standing of, the awards.”<\/p>\n

SES responds<\/p>\n

The SES issued a separate statement saying it was “aware a member has been charged with matters unrelated to the agency”.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

The State Emergency Service said Mr Box’s membership is being reviewed. (Supplied: NSW State Emergency Service)<\/p>\n

“Their membership\u00a0has been\u00a0suspended\u00a0in accordance with\u00a0NSW SES policies and procedures and relevant external legislative requirements.”<\/p>\n

Mr Box also worked for three months with NSW Police as a civilian employee between 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

‘Grave concern’<\/p>\n

Judge Viney said he had reservations about granting bail, but noted the accused had no prior offending.<\/p>\n

“He said he had been collecting for the past 25 years which is a very grave concern for this court,” Judge Viney said.<\/p>\n

Mr Box was granted bail with conditions including a requirement to move out of his family home to another address.<\/p>\n

Mr Box can also not possess any device that can connect to the internet.<\/p>\n

He is due to front Belmont Local Court on June 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former police staffer and lauded SES volunteer has been granted strict bail on a charge of possessing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7814,64,63,341791,17192,12753,1108,44,1158,87507,74853,33608,30893],"class_list":["post-701825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-abuse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-award-winning","tag-bail","tag-child","tag-court","tag-news","tag-police","tag-porn","tag-pornography","tag-ses","tag-volunteer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}