South Australian independent MP Bernard Finnigan has been found guilty of obtaining access to child pornography.

Finnigan was arrested at his Sefton Park home in April 2011 and charged with accessing child pornography between December 2010 and April 2011.

Finnigan’s lawyers have asked the judge not to record the conviction now, but rather for that to be decided during sentencing.

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The judge agreed to defer that issue until sentencing.

The trial, which began in April this year, was heard by Judge Steven Millsteed alone.

Finnigan was also acquitted of a charge of attempting to obtain access to child pornography.

He was repeatedly heckled by the public as he left court accompanied by his legal team.

He did not comment on the case or his political future, despite being repeatedly asked questions from journalists.

Before Judge Millsteed delivered his verdict in front of a packed public gallery he warned onlookers that they would be removed from the court if they caused a disturbance.

Finnigan’s lawyer Michael Abbott QC was not at the hearing, but had others from his legal team in attendance.

In his 89-page judgment, Judge Millsteed said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Finnigan manually entered the search terms into Google rather than it being automatically completed or produced by a “pop up” link.

He also said it was “improbable” that a person would key in such a search term and not proceed with the search by clicking on at least one of the results.

Judge Millsteed said while he could not find beyond reasonable doubt that all of the search terms were necessarily referable to child pornography, he was able to conclude that some of them were.

“The nature of the words he used suggest that his intention was predominately directed at young teenagers,” Judge Millsteed said.

“On my findings he did so with the intention of viewing child pornography.”

Judge to consider lifting suppression on search terms used

But he said the prosecution had failed to prove its case on the second count.

After delivering his verdict Judge Millsteed said he would further consider whether to lift the current suppression order on the search terms Finnigan used.

Bernard Finnigan arriving at court. Photo: ABC

“It is not a difficult exercise for members of the public to potentially access child pornography if they wish,” Judge Millsteed said.

“Indeed there may be a cogent argument that publication of this material puts people on notice that use of these sorts of search terms puts them in serious jeopardy.”

The case has been adjourned to November 30 for half a day of sentencing submissions.

Finnigan was re-elected as a Labor MLC (Member of the Legislative Council) at the 2010 election, but resigned as a Government minister in early 2011 to sit on the cross bench.

He continued to sit in the Legislative Council as an independent and would be due to face voters in the 2018 election.

In the wake of the guilty verdict, Attorney-General John Rau said he believed the public expected Finnigan would not continue to serve in the Legislative Council.

Mr Rau said he expected the Legislative Council would deal with Finnigan’s parliamentary tenure next Tuesday.

“A finding of guilt in respect of this type of offence is not compatible with a person continuing to serve as a Member of the Legislative Council,” Mr Rau said.

-ABC