Dumindunath Bandara Ekanayake: Porn-addicted dad jailed for possessing ‘depraved’ child exploitation images

A pornography-addicted Perth man has been jailed after being found with hundreds of abhorrent child exploitation images involving children as young as three, following a tip-off from US authorities. Australian Federal Police and WA Police searched Dumindunath Bandara Ekanayake’s eastern suburbs home in July 2022, following up a report from the United States’ National Center for Missing and Exploited Children earlier that year. The 40-year-old father-of-one was found with 142 vile images and 362 videos across three devices, and finally pleaded guilty in November 2024 to accessing child abuse material using a carriage service. He was sentenced in the District Court of WA last week, with Judge Belinda Lonsdale saying it was a lower total than many other similar cases, but some of the images Ekanayake possessed were particularly depraved. She said the Sri Lanka-born man had a privileged but strict upbringing, and turned to “hedonistic pursuits” to cope with his distress over a friend’s death and an assault that left him unable to work. “You were, for want of a better expression, partying hard, going to nightclubs, using dating apps, having casual sex and smoking cannabis,” she said. The married man claimed to not have a sexual interest in children, insisting he was looking for adult pornography when he downloaded the child abuse material. But he admitted he was aroused by what he saw, and while his treating psychologist said he did not have any paedophilic tendencies, he may have “engaged in cognitive distortions” to justify his offending. “The character references reveal that there is a good side to you, one that is not defined by your addiction to your pornography or your abuse of alcohol and drugs,” Judge Lonsdale said. “This is partly no doubt due to the effort that you have been putting into your rehabilitation since you’ve been charged with the present offences.” Those efforts played a big role in reducing the term he would otherwise have got, she said, sentencing to Ekanayake to one year and 10 months behind bars. But he will be released in late August this year on a $1000 recognisance order to be of good behaviour, with conditions.