Rachel Carling-Jenkins. Credit:Eddie Jim Dr Carling-Jenkins told Parliament she and her son reported the crimes to police after discovering the material in February last year. Prior to the discovery she had believed that her husband had a mental illness and had tried to get him help. But Dr Carling-Jenkins said he had consistently thwarted those attempts to help him. "I want to make one thing clear; I had no idea prior to February 2016 that my husband was addicted to child pornography.

"I had believed for a long time that he was suffering from a mental illness and I had attempted on numerous occasions to get him help," she said. "However Gary had consistently rebuffed or sabotaged these attempts and I thought at the time that was another symptom of a mental illness. "Gary does not have a mental illness, his behaviours stem from something much more sinister." She thanked police for their work in their investigation, but said her husband's inclusion on the sex offenders' register and a "sentence of a few months" was inadequate punishment.

Dr Carling-Jenkins explained that her husband had continued to abuse her emotionally and financially. "My marriage ended instantly and I left home the day I made that discovery and I've not returned to the family home since except to pick up belongings." However, Dr Carling-Jenkins said her husband still resisted signing divorce papers. "I remain vulnerable financially and physically, fearful of my ability to protect myself." But Dr Carling-Jenkins' greatest concern was for the children whose innocence and childhood had been stolen from them.

"Those little girls would not have been abused if people like my ex-husband did not provide a market for that abuse." Dr Carling-Jenkins' husband, Gary Jenkins, was sentenced to four months imprisonment on March 1 for knowingly possessing child pornography. He first appeared in Sunshine Magistrates Court on December 9, 2016 but the case was adjourned. Mr Jenkins will be required to report to Victoria Police for the next eight years after he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register. An appeal to the County Court on April 10 was abandoned.

Outside Parliament on Thursday, Dr Carling-Jenkins said her decision to speak out had sparked criticism from "some quarters", including an abusive email that day. Dr Carling-Jenkins said she had also been criticised by some who believed she should have stood by her estranged husband. "This is an attitude in society that, no matter what, a wife should not stand up and call her husband out," she said. "I don't by any means want to make this a gendered issue but it is a prevailing attitude in society … I think it's wrong and it needs to stop." Dr Carling-Jenkins did not detail who had chided her over the decision to speak out but confirmed "it wasn't all from strangers".

However, she praised her parliamentary colleagues across all sides of politics for the support they provided, including Premier Daniel Andrews who she said expressed his support personally. Dr Carling-Jenkins was elected to the upper house as a member of the Democratic Labour Party in the 2014 election. In her maiden speech in February 2015 she promised to fight gender-selection abortions, gave thanks to hard-right religious leader Danny Naliah and described pornography and the "fast-growing sex industry" as a scourge on society. In June she defected from the DLP and joined Cory Bernardi's fledgling Australian Conservatives party. with AAP