from www.heraldsun.com.au – PORN website boss Garion Hall intends fighting the sex-related charges laid against him by Victoria Police.

Mr Hall, 35, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to face 54 counts of making objectionable films for gain, two charges of possessing child pornography and one count of possessing a commercial quantity of objectionable films.

His lawyer, Emanuel Tumino, yesterday told the court Mr Hall will contest the charges and asked for a new court date to be set to enable him to do so.

Magistrate Jelena Popovic adjourned Mr Hall’s case to March 19.

The charges against Mr Hall followed a Victoria Police raid last June on Mr Hall’s G Media porn business in Fitzroy and on his Heidelberg home.

The sex industry is nervously awaiting the outcome of the prosecution of Mr Hall as it is being seen as a test case for Australian companies involved in the porn industry.

X18+ films and computer games can’t be legally sold in Australia except for the ACT and Northern Territory.

Most of the charges against Mr Hall were laid under a rarely used section of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) Act, which makes it illegal to profit from making porn films in Victoria.

Section 24 of the Act states a person must not make or produce an objectionable film for gain.

It defines an objectionable film as one that has been, or would be, classified as X18+, or which is so explicit it would be refused classification.

Victoria Police will allege the DVDs seized from G Media fit the category of objectionable films.

G Media has been operating a porn website since 2000 and it now contains more than 400,000 explicit images and about 4300 sex videos featuring 1236 models, many of them recruited in Melbourne.