With Ben McCormack's trial now over, A Current Affair's Tracy Grimshaw has revealed how staff on the show reacted to the discovery of their colleague's arrest on child porn charges.
McCormack, who was a reporter on the show, was arrested in April after police alleged he engaged in explicit conversations about children and discussed child pornography.
Police raided his home and the offices of A Current Affair and he was charged with using a carriage service for child pornography material.
On Wednesday he was fined $1000 and sentenced to a three-year good behaviour bond.
Despite covering the arrest and the case, A Current Affair has avoided making a statement about it but Wednesday night, Grimshaw opened the show with a response.
"Like any accused person, from the moment Ben McCormack was charged the only judgement that mattered is that of the court," Grimshaw said.
"Now its over you are entitled to a statement from us."
Grimshaw revealed the shock and upset McCormack's arrest caused amongst his colleagues within the show's small newsroom before saying she, at first, hoped there had been some mistake.
"For me personally, I wished it was some terrible mistake," she said.
"That maybe he'd been researching a story and his actions had been misinterpreted.
"But when the detail of his online discussions became clear, when he called himself a 'proud pedo' who was attracted to boys aged 7 to 13 years old, I realised it was no mistake by the police.
"How could he do that? It was horrifying."
McCormack was famously sent to Singapore to confront Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes over allegations of sexual abuse of young girls, and Grimshaw expressed her disbelief that McCormack had been able to do that.
She also said McCormack had been invited on A Current Affair to explain but had declined.
Tracy Grimshaw speaks out on Ben McCormack. pic.twitter.com/0mlYNkD23S??? A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) December 6, 2017
"How the hell could Ben McCormack ask Hughes those questions, when he's now admitted to the court that his own private attractions to children had already been triggered a couple of years earlier?" Grimshaw said.
"How could he offer professional support and comfort to Sarah Monahan whom he knew had suffered for years after her abuse as a child, while at the same time privately harbouring his own perverted fantasies?
"I don't know... I'd like to ask him that."
