FORMER Langwarrin Park Primary School principal Richard Barren will spend at least three months in prison for possessing child abuse material.
Barren was sentenced in the County Court last Wednesday, 18 February, after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material obtained using a carriage service and one count of transmitting child abuse material using a carriage service. The 50-year-old Mornington resident was handed a 16-month prison sentence, but also received a recognisance release order with a minimum non-parole period of three months.
Barren was found to have possessed two child abuse videos of children aged between 10 and 13. He also used dating app Grindr to discuss young children in a sexual manner. His offending occurred between 2023 and 2024.
Barren was arrested on 26 January, 2025, after returning to Australia from a trip to the United States. Australian Federal Police officers allegedly discovered child abuse material on his phone during a bag search.
Langwarrin Park Primary School parents were informed of the arrest the following week, with a letter from the Victorian Department of Education stating that no students from the school had been identified as victims (“Langwarrin Park principal charged” The Times 31/1/2025).
After the sentencing, AFP detective superintendent Ray Imbriano said “children are some of the most vulnerable members of society, and the AFP is fiercely committed to protecting them from harm.”
“For those producing, possessing or sharing this kind of abhorrent material – the AFP is working tirelessly to identify you and place you before the courts to face justice for these vile crimes,” he said.
First published in the Frankston Times – 24 February 2026