Craig John Frost to be sentenced for possessing over 1000 child abuse files

A South East man caught with over 1000 child abuse files, including children as young as two, said if he could access it, it must not be illegal.

A South East man who was using the dark web to access child abuse material, including children as young as two, said he knows he is not a paedophile.

Craig John Frost’s sinister secret was exposed after a tip off from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police led police to the abhorrent material.

Prosecutor Alice Bitmead, pushed for immediate jail in the Adelaide District Court on Tuesday, saying Frost showed a “really concerning lack of insight” into his offending and lack of awareness of his sexual interest in children.

Frost, 37, was arrested in May 2020 after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) received a tip-off from Canadian authorities who discovered him using an online forum to receive 12 files of child exploitation material from a person overseas.

Police found 807 images and 50 videos of child exploitation material saved in Frost’s mobile phone, with over a third of the files containing children between the ages of two and five years old.

Officers also found 202 images on a disk and 83 images on a hard drive.

Frost had also downloaded 3260 files of text-based short stories depicting the sexual abuse of children.

Ms Bitmead said Frost was using a tor browser to access the dark web to use a highly specialised child abuse forum.

The Kingston South East man pleaded guilty to multiple offences, including possessing child exploitation material and using a carriage service to access and transmit child abuse material.

Craig John Frost outside the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court at an earlier appearance. Picture: Jessica Ball

The court heard Frost said in a statement, “I know I’m not a paedophile, I don’t have any sexual interest in pursuing underage children or infants”.

Frost also said “I figured what I did in my private time was my business, if I could access it, it must not have been illegal”.

Nick Healy, for Frost, said the court should be hesitant in sentencing Frost to immediate jail, as it could have an “devastating impact” on the progress he’s made.

The court heard Frost, who had been diagnosed with autism, is seeing a psychologist and undergoing treatment.

The court heard Frost had limited ability to understand the impact on the victims in the abuse material.

Judge Rauf Soulio will sentence Frost in August.